Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1913-07-11
SHOWS
SPECIAL VARIETIES
BEST FOR GROWERS
Strawberry Season Illustrates the
Need for Uniform Action, Say
Marke.-lg Experts.
LOCAL CROP FARES BEST.
Clark Seedlings Finest for Can
ning-Marshalls and Magoons
for Shipping.


That the experience of the past sea-
son just closing has demonstrated
conclusively that the strawberry grow
ers of this vicinity should confine
themselves to growing particular kinds
of this berry instead of dozen or
more different kinds, is the opinion of
Manager Mark Ewald of the National
Canning company and those who ham
died the local output for the growers.
That the growers of the county real
ize this, too, is illustrated in the fact
that already they are laying plans for
a meeting next fall to decide upon va
rieties to be planted for two purposes:
canning berries and shipping berries.
In addition several of the larger grow
ers have contracted with the cannery
to set out approximately so acres of
one variety-the Clark seedling-this
fall, while the other growers are con-
templating the plowing under of q
considerable acreage of berries of nom
descript varieties and planting In their
stead the Clark Seeding for the can
merry or the Marshalls or Magoons for
shipping.
In spite Of the number of diversified
varieties grown in this section the To-
cal growers Jared better this year than
any others in Western Washington, ac-
cording to the cannery people, who
point to the fact that thousands of
crates Of Vashon island berries, soft
and moulded by the late rains. were
dumped into the bay at Seattle by the
commission men, while all Of the To-
cal crop was disposed of. The Ma
tional Canning company handled about
half of the local product, packing A.
600 crates during the season or about
three times as many as last year,
while the others were handled to ad-
vantage by the Strawberry Growers
association under the efficient man.
agement Of G. ]. Olney, some eight or
ten carloads being shipped as far east
as Central Montana, remarkable
distance considering the weather con-
ditions during the picking season.
The planting of so acres Of the Clark
seedlings this fall comes as the result
of the experiment by Mr.. Southwick,
a rancher on Chambers Prairie. who
planted this variety a year ago, OBJ
tanning his plants from vashon ISL
and grower, and who found that his
berries, being firm, red berry Of the
finest quality, were in demand
throughout the season, while the mar
ket was glutted with the soft, mushy
berries of the other varieties. His
plants also bore very heavily and the
berries were hard and firm even after
a rain. His success led the cannery
to arrange with some of the larger
growers to plant the seedlings this
fall for next years crop.
Even though they disposed of their
crop to better advantage than any 9TH
er section of Western Washington,
this season was great disappoint-
ment to local growers of general va
rieties, due to the heavy rains during
the ripening period. The pack" was
also Improbable from the cannery's
standpoint, because the greater proper
tion of it had to be put up in gallon
cans for which it is hard to find sale.
"Under normal conditions we would
not have risked as heavy pack as
we did make, in fact, we would not
have expended near the amount o.
money we did in packing the wet, soft
berries grown this year if c. ]. Lord
of the Capital National bank had not
stood behind us financially and re-
quested us to do all we could to save
the growers from a severe loss" Mr..
Ewald said in explaining the cannerys
pack. This unquestionably saved
the growers thousands of crates which
otherwise would have met the same re-
suits as the Vashon island berries. One
day in Seattle it is reported that sew
eral thousand crates Of mouldy, over
ripe berries were dumped into the bay.
Numerous Nashon island growers
visited us during the season and in
several instances offered us their en-
tire crops" he continued, amounting
tn l,,,t III