The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-04-15
BERRIES GO NORTH
SEASON IN FULL RUSH AT CASTLE
 BERRY.
Product is Bringing Fancy Prices in the Markets and Growers are Active in the ship
 menfa.

Castleberry, April 14-(Special)-The market and the season are with the growers of rawberries this year. and the crimson fruit is being rushed to the Northern and Eastern commission centers with rapidity scarcely equall- ed before.
 Every day counts with the producers at this stage, and everybody in the business here is on the edge of sus- pense.
 Sales so far have brought fancy prices. The berries are still bringing handsome prices, and that is why every hour is being made to count Tn the picking and shipping of the fruit:
 That is what keeps the nerves or the growers at high tension. The labor problem is a vital one to the grower Of stra awberries. probably more vital than to any other horticultural branch, be- cause the shipping period is so brief and the market is so sensitive
 Already some forty carloads of ber-
 ries have been shipped from this point. Probably eighteen or twenty cars have been rushed away from Brewton
 where of late a variety of strawberry has been produced. For those forty cars shipped from here excellent prices have been obtained. prices ranging from to $5 a crate. The chief des- tinations of the berries are Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburg.
 To Illustrate the despatch with which the groeers are marketing their ber-
 ries, very often a car Is sent spinning Northward without any definite con- siEnee depending upon contracting for the sale of the car during transit. To appreciate the necessity for this rush, aside from the perishable nature of the product. one should, perhaps, go into the business of growing the strawberry and be smoothly sailing along with his business, getting fancy prices, when suddenly something pom derous hits the market She stumbles with the crash of a ton of brick. It seems awfully sudden to the upiintiat- ed but all that noise hitting the mar ket is simply the maturing of the Car olina berry,
 When the Carolina berry. strikes the market everything here collapses. Ber- ries that the day before had been mar keted for $3 and $4 crate are poured out to the hogs with the advent of the Carolina berry. The glutting of the market by the Tarheels Is the bug-a- boo of the shippers in these parts. When the Tarheel cries out his signal the man here throws up his hands. It's all of. So long as this signal Is post. poned. that long the shipper and grow CT here. seasons and labor being fa- vorable. will prosper.
 This year there was an early start. About fifteen days the berry has been moving constantly North It is beat ing the Cullman product by three weeks at least. There is no fear, though of the Cullman berry here. The grower around Castleberry and Marble proudly lauds his Klondike and Lady -Thornp- son many towers above the prize of the German colony. What is now hop- ed for Is that the Easter demand will swell prices for the berries shipped from this region. It now looks as if A good portion of the Eastern Easter supply will come from South Ala. bana. If so. good prices are bound to rule. If not there is stil hope that the market will be sustained.
 Getting the berry picked. as said earlier, is an exasperating task for the grower hereabouts. The negro laborer is dependent upon almost altogether There are so many things to pull his attention away from the loamy ground where the luscious fruit lies ready Tor the hand. If the Louisville and Nash" vile freight and passenger trains would be kind enough to stop their flights through here during the sea- son. the directors of that road do not realize what vast benefits would be be- slowed on the industry-that Is, those freightS which do not carry the berry to the Northern market. Because ns' rroes will raise their figures from the ground and gaze expectantly at shs trains as they loom through the pines and follow the cabooses as they steal away through. the distance
 Another serious drawback here was the unfortunate and un- tineIy death of a prominent negro in inc community. The growers suffered bv this death. All efforts of cunning and diplomacy availed naught iR get ting a postponement of the funeral proper until the season was over. There was nothing doing. The big thing had to be pulled off. It had been too long since one of the num- her had died. Not even the attractive prices of labor and the coaxing of bosses changed their minds. The fun eral was held. slowly and unctiously. with all the pomp and show of the race.
 Ii now looks as if between eighty and ninety care of berries will be shipped from this point before the sea son ends The cars bring about t1 900 each. There are also good prospects for peaches this summer. The trees are budding nicely