The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-03-15

Preparations Being Made for Hand
ling Strawberry Crop-Large In
crease in acreage This Season
Shipments of Spring Lettuce to Be-
gin This Month

gin This Month
The leading editorial I'm the forth
coming issue OF the Carolina Fruit
and Truckers Journal is on the
strawberry and vegetable situation
and the following Is a portion of
the article:
A few days of sunshine during the
first wee Of March h lone much to
start of vegetation and the straw
berry fields are already beginning to
show the result of warm weather
influences. The past winter has by
common consent been the most severe
w have had in this territory for a quar-
ter of a century at least. What efec.
such weather conditions will have on
the following strawberry crop this
season is as yet an unknown quantity.
One thing is certain there a been no
mid-winter strawberry blooms in these
parts as was the case last year and
the vines this season should produce
some unusually fine fruit.
We give it as our opinion that the
1904 season will show up with a cool
average crop and an increase ove-
1903, as 1t is a well known fact that
the increase OF acreage throughout
North and South Carolina and Vir-
ginia this year has beer fully Is per
cent over that OF last year.
The c~antaloupe and melon crop will
also be much larger than last rear,
indeed we might say sc per cent in
excess of the 1903 output. New straw
berry and vegetable owe are en-
tering the field every yea and pos
Sible there has been a greater increase
in the number of truck farmers this
year over any previous one in a long
while.
rr1nrY~ n- NJ.
Growers and Express people. are fill
ing their ice houses all along the diff
ferent lines. building new ones where
ever necessary. and turning their cars
southwark and making other neces-
sary efforts to give u people the best
possible service during the coming
season.
1t begins to look as though ship
ments would hardly go forward before
h goth or 25th of April. Some think
earlier, while athers predict that il
will be the 18th before there is any
movement to speak Of. Last year ship
ments began on or about April 5th,
and at this rate the 1904 season will
be from fifteen to twenty days behisd
last year. The Atlantic Coast Line
and Pennsylvania Railroads are now
at work on the arrangement of Il
schedule for expediting the movement
with the greatest possible dispatch
and Mr.. Bauman, the shipping mas
ter Of the association, will take
up his quarters at South Rocky Mount
just as he did last year, as soon as the
first car load goes out in order that
the greatest possible regularity may
be exercised in the distribution of his
seasons crop.
AT Rocky Mount he keeps track O.
every car going out of this territory
and its destination. the hour Of it's
departure from that point and the
time Of. delivery at the other end of
the line. He is also supplied with
Geographic advices as to the strength
or weakness of each market in all the
territory covered by shipments from
this section, n issues a. daily bulletin
each morning for distribution on the
'~Shoo-fy' leaving Rocky Mount at
$50 A. NJ. and reaching Wilmington az
1910 A. M.
Spring shipments Of the lettuce crop
Will begin afresh on Or about the latter
part of he present month and the
outlook is very promising indeed for
a full yield. AS a matter OF fact the
lettuce acreage this yea has increased
fully 80 per cent over last but the se-
verify of the winter has seriously re-
tarded it's growth and development.