The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-09-08
BURBERRY BARRENs OF MAINE.

Vast Tract Belonging to One Man
 How Berries are Gathered and
 Marketed.
 Prof. W. M. Munson of the University of Maine contributes to the report is sued by Edgar E. Ring, forest com- missioner for Maine, an instructive on "BlueBerry Culture" In some parts of MaiTe, particularly in Washington County, the management of lands that have been deforested and that would be worthless for general agricultural pur- poses, has been systematized, and the canning of bluebarries has become an important industrial operation.
 1ho lard decoted to the hluebery in- dustry in Maine lies mostly in Washing ton county, where there are about 15O,- 900 acres known as the ''blueberry bar rens." This land lies chiefly in the townships of Cherryfield, Columbia, DebIois, Beddington, Harrington, Jonesboro and Nos. IS and 19 Recently a canning factory has been established at Vanceboro for the utilization of the fruit in the northern part of the county Much of this land was burned over by the Indians before the colonial period, and since the timber was removed from the remainder it, too, has repeatedly been burned to keep down the growth of birches, alders, &c., and to facilitate the harvesting of the friut.
 About 40,000 acres of the barens be- op who may properly be regarded as the pioneer in the blueberry industry of America. After long and bitter litiga- ton he proved beyond question his right to charge royalty for all fruit gathered on his lands, and established a systematic of treament which is ap- plicable, under most conditions every where. The method is somewhat as follows:
 The land is divided into several tracts, each of which is leased to some re- sponsihle party who assumes the whole care of burning, keeping off trespassers, harvesting and marketing the fruit. The owner receives as rental one half cent per quart for all the fruit gathered.
 The piclsers receive from 1-2 to cents per quart; those who lease the land and haul fruit to the canning factory or to the station for shipment, half cent per quart the rate being determined, in accordance with the market values, by the firm which hand les the product. The fruit is all canned icord -h y him r-ma
 or shipped by one firm, which keeps a record of the amount as it is brought in, and pays royalty to the owner Every year a certain section of each Tease is burned over.
 The financial importance of the blue- berry industry is very difficult even to estimate at the present time. In Maine the canning of blueberries Is largely in the hands of few leading packers. The largest Of these factories has daily capacity of seven hundred bushels, and ten averaee annual output is $500 cases i 6,250 bushels of fresh fruit The aver age price Der case for the canned fruit 1 is $1.90. In other words, the value of 1 the annual product of this one factory 1 is not far from $15,000.
 The number of hands employed in the various factories would aggregate about a hundred but including the pickers there are from 1000 to 2,00C men, women and chilren employed in the blueberry packing industry during the canning season About $3OO,OO is distributed among the pickers each year.
 The total canned product of the "blueberry barrens" in 1899 was about
 5O,OOO cases, and the price per case was $2.2O. making the value of the blue i berry crop in this one section consider. ably more than $1OO, 900. Some seasons
 the value of the crop will be more thar
 than this, some seasons less. s.-From the i Springfield Republican.