The Covington leader. (Covington, Tenn.) 18??-current, 1921-04-14
SECRETARY POLK VISITS
LOUISIANA BERRY FIELDS


AS your sales manager and secre-
tary, feel it my duty and pleasure
to relate TO you what / observed
and learned while in the Louisiana
strawberry section the past several
days. On April 2, Hammond and
vicinity shipped, or rather sold on
track, q cars of berries, pint crates,
for $4 per crate. On Monday they
sold 40 ears, pints, at s4.40, and two
cars Of quarts at $3.50 per crate, and
buyers from every market in the
United States there were begging
for more-not enough to 60 around.
Think of it. You must pay rs cents
for a pint Of berries in Hammond,
and they are culls.
was closely associated with all
Of the buyers, stopping at the same
hotel, riding with them in cars GO
ing from one point to another, and
learned just what they wanted and
what each market demanded, and the
general cry was quality and good,
honest, clean packing.
At Hammond there are three as
sociations. This is brought about
by the awful mixture of nationali-
ties Italians in one part, Hungar-
ians in another, and so on. Then,
only three miles south of Hammond,
the little town Of Pontachula. Prac-
tically all people living in and around
this little city are white people, and
these associations are graded, too.
You'd be surprised to find that
dead line between Hammond and
Pontachula is drawn, and they do
not cross it either. Why? Because
there is such a vast difference in
the way they handle and pack their
berries. It counts and stands for
dollars. Buyers fight for Pontachu-
la berries and pay from % cents to
80 cents more per crate for them,
all because they are handled right.
One Of the Hammond associations
prides itself on quality, and the rest
Of the berry handled by the careless
associations there makes it hard on
them.
It pays to be honest. The buyers
want good berries and honest packs,
the same for their money as does the
honest merchant. Pontachula ber-
ries are known all over the United
States because they started right
and keep it up. They give quality,
clean full measure and get the price.
visited the fields and pack sheds
and learned much. They have pack
ers at the sheds that empty all ber-
ries as they are brought in the car
riers and repack, culling all green,
defective and over-ripe berries, fill \
ing the boxes rolling-full of nothing
but good berries.
We are far superior to these peo-
pie. Our soils are far superior. All
we have to do to make good is to
Just say we will. Louisiana is a 4
frog pond compared to Upton coun-
ty. They have to run a canal around
their farm and have bitches every
30 feet and perch their berries up
on a high ridge to keep them from
and use fertilizer to make
The berries. One thing they do,have
Is climate. We have everything
soil, climate, and the crab grass
our berries for us. All we
have to do is to set them out and
cultivate them one year. 1t takes
Louisiana two months to gather her
.rop and then she gets no more
rates per acre than we do in three
weeks.
AS we are about to start to har-
rest our crop, let's start right, de-
to put Upton county on
he map for good Strawberries and
honest pack. Don't permit your
packers to allow berries to be sent
o market that are not good to eat.
Remember. you are selling them to
omeone for that purpose, and If
you allow green, soft, rotten and
iuch stuff to 60 to your customer,
rou are not giving him his moneys
worth. ! am warning you in time.
f you do not take my warninp your
will refuse your berries
when you bring them in. for the
linton County Berry Growers AS
must stand for only the
,est. Yours very truly.