Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1905-1919, 1906-06-02

tie oil City Derrick by Byon II.
Butler of North Carolina. show,
wonde ful results can be reached in
the cultivation of the strawberry. In
that state, aud in many other states.
the raising and shipping of thi, small
fruit has grown into a great industry.
giving employment to thousand, of
men, women and children. and bring.
ing millions of dollars to those en-.
gagged in it. We have in Indian Ter.
ritory, almost in the same latitude
with North Carolina, a land and eli
mate wonderfully well suited to the
growth of all kinds of small fruits.
but as yet untried, undeveloped.
Some day some writer will be send
ing from Indian Territory just such
Il letter as the following;
1.-THE man who in the spring slips
down to the market at the north aud
picks up his little box of straw
berries to carry home to dinner has
faint conception of what the straw
berry industry is in the country
where raising strawberries is a bust
ness. Eastern North Carolina is
vast garden, and the output of gar
den stuff is increasing at a fabulous
gait. During the early day, of May
this year the strawberry harvest of
that garden section was in evidence
all over the northeastern United
States.
sit was my fortune to live in Du-
Bois, Pennsylvania, when the coal
mining industry in that section was
assuming considerable proportions,
aud the community felt right well
satisfied when shipment Of hun
died ears of coal went out in a day.
But compare that with some of the
shipments from the strawberry belt.
Over in the strawberry section during
the first days of May Strawberries
were going at the rate of more than
a hundred and fifty ears day. And
a ear of Strawberries is different from
a ear of coal. Solid trains of starw-
berries, and several of them each day.
make the freight business at this
season resemble the freight business
of the Western Pennsylvania re-
giOn. where train after train of coal
or coke passes over the road. There
is this difference. One ear of straw
berries is worth a train load of coal.
A crate of Strawberries will buy a
ton of coal.
"A good deal has been said of the
beef trust and the private ear lines
but the people of North Carolina
look 70 the beef trust and the private
ear lines to Get the fruit away IN the
fruit season. 1t must not be mag
ined that the ordinary freight ear
will serve to haul strawberries Your
strawberry is a particular passenger,
and want; a refrigerator car. Now
il is next to impossible for the rail
roads to satisfy the demands for
ears from their own rolling stock,
for there are not more than two or
three railroad systems in the world
that could provide enough refrigera-
tor cars at one time to move the Car
olina strawberry crop. So the prl-
vate ears of the beef packers are
brought into requisition, and by
massing a large number of the Ar
mour cars at field in April the crop
is moved without much difficulty.
"To do this requires wonderful
amount Of preparation. AT various
points ice factories have to be main
tanned that the ears may start
out with the proper quantity OF zee,
and that the supply may be renewed
at certain stations along the road.
All these things must be provided IN
advance shat nothing shall delay the
strawberry train when it starts, for
"A strawberry is not an enduring thing
and when II is ripe is must be hurried
on every foot of the journey from the
vine to the table, which may be a
thousand or more miles away.
"Thc private fruit line, owned
and operated by the beef packers. Is
;he dependence Of the fruit shipper
Of the South. At this season the re-
frigerator ear is at liberty to turn
its attention to the Carolina straw
berry fields. II may be engaged here
for two or three trips. and then find
carrying out crop OF
carry tomatoes from Texas farms
to Chicago on an entirely different
system of roads. Possibly it will be
a t..I