Milford chronicle., 1924-06-13
STRAWBERRIES ARE
SELLING ALLOW PRICES
Growers In Lower Sussex Stand To
Lsse Heavily Unless The Prices
Take An Advance.
LATE SEASON Is THE CAUSE
Delaware Berries Are Coming Into
Market At The Same Time As
Those Grown Elsewhere.

Strawberry growers of lower Della
ware are not going to realize very
much from their crop this year. and
many of them, it is said, are going to
be lucky if they get enough out of
them to pay for their crates, picking
and the labor spent on growing them.
On Wednesday the bottom dropped
out of the market in Georgetown and
some of the other shipping points,
good quality of fruit selling on an
average of six cents per quart box or
$192 per S2-quart crate.
Growers are paying the pickers
from two and one half to three cents
per quart, or at the rate of ninety
six cents a crate, and when this is
added to the cost of the crate amount
ing to thirty-twO cents, the average
cost per crate is SIPS. When fruit is
selling for $1.92 per 32-quart crate,
the grower only has siXty-fOur cents
left for his labor in cultivating them
during the fall and early spring, time
lost in hauling them in many in
stances six and seven miles to the
markets, high cost of fertilizers and
the use of the land. Growing berries !
in these days of high cost of prOduc- |
tiOn for siXty-four cents per crate is |
a losing proposition to the farmers; |
and unless there is a sharp advance
in price some time during the week
many growers are going to lose mon
ey and the result is going TO be a de-
crease in acreage next year.
Sussex county farmers in the spring
look for the berry crop to bring them
in their first money for the year to
tide them over until the late summer
and fall crops mature.
Before the World War, farmers
could grow berries at a net return of
sixty-four cents per crate and make 3
some money. Then labor cost on the Z
farm was only about one third what 3
it is today and fertilizers could be 7
bought for one third less. Pickers
were given from one and one half to r
two and half cents per quart and i
crates could be bought for twenty and h
twenty-three cents each. n
In the early spring indications f
pointed to one of the largest berry l,
crops ever known on the Delmarvia
Peninsula, especially in lower Della n
ware, because the fruit blossoms pass v
ID through the changeable weather in n
lie SpIluS anu WCAC NetAAAe5SN
title by the late frOsts. r
Within a short time after the fruit
egan to form, cold rains throughout d
lay retarded their growth and when
hey finally started to mature the
aims continued and caused them to
ecome soft with the result that hun :,
reds of crates could not be picked N
rom many of the fields. This was
reat loss to the growers, and will
each thousands of dollars in Sussex
Ounty Heavy rains have prevailed
lost of the time since the crop start
to mature, and the wet condition
f the fruit has had a tendency TO pi
rive down the price. The fruit, how In
yer, is in much better shape at the by
resent time than it has been for We
eek, yet ntop of this there is a fill
larp decline in the price which has cr
'eatly discouraged the growers. The
,st varieties of berries are supposed Ne
be coming into the markets at this wi
ne. elg