Montgomery County sentinel., 1944-08-17
| LOOKZNC
| AHEAD
sn GEORGE S. BENSON
RfSsiaest57ssralxg Foliage
SeNrcE O4rkaHSas
A Small Industry

Strawberries classify as luxuries.
If they are absolutely essential to
anything but strawberry shortcake,
don't know what it is. Few lower
animals will touch them. Apparent
ly they were created for the enjoy
ment of mankind. Their food value
seems quite incidental to the pleas
ure they afford some people and the
hives they cause to erupt on others.
Strawberries however have be-
come primary economic factor in
the lives of a few thousand people
and good many Of them are my
neighbors here in White County,
Arkansas. Strawberries to us are
what celery is to Kalamazoo or
cheese to Roquefort. What this little
industry has experienced in the last
three years under cut-and-dried
economy is set forth very plainly in
the figures below:
The Strawberry Crop
White County 1914 I943 1912
Acres in Berries. 1900 $500 $4,000
Crates per Acre. Is As 70
Price per Crate. $3.50 $3.50 81 so
Remember the story of Sinbad the
Sailor and the Old Man of the Sea?
Well-blows White County has sus-
tanned at the hand Of the OPA sug-
gest what Sinbad endured from the
OMS. Large industries like Avia-
tion, Petroleum and Textiles touch
a larger number of people in a more
vital way but the little ones are not
exempt from the effects of official
talnpering. And there are many
little ones.
Strawberries are extremely per-
ishable; the season is very short
and early. People in the business
are prepared for inevitable "off
years" when crops are damaged by
weather conditions but they are al
most obliged to have their occasional
seasons of rich return in order to
keep the wolf from the door during
the lean years. The 1943 season was
about average in acreage and yield
per acre.
Worse Than Frost
The only recent year of promising
pay-of was 1912. Everything looked
hopeful including the weather. Acre
age was large and so was the yield.
But in April the governments newly
installed food rationing department
did some warming-up maneuvers on
sugar. The sugar shortage was
bogus but there was a lot of hubbub
about it and the effect was real.
White County farmers lost out, thus:
Price to the grower that year was
$1.50 for case of "a quarts. 1t
wouldn't pay for picking and pack
ing. The fruit was fine but the buy
ers we're afraid because they had no
reason to believe Mrs. Housewife
would be able to set sugar on her
table at any price. Processing firms,
Gamers and jam makers, took what
they could handle and the rest (most
of the CROP rotted in the field be-
fore the sugar shortage fable was
debunked.
DiscOuragement Comes
If the entire crop might have been
sold at the ridiculously low figure
Of $1.50 crate, White County would
have received 81, ,260, 900 for it, and
gone in the red. In 1943, however,
It was the consumer who paid dear
ly. Discouraged Arkansas growers
set out 37149O less land and pro-
duced 35% less per acre. The farm
er's price trebled but gross return
to the county was still under
81, 900, 900 for the season.
The 1914 season is hardly worth
counting. Last summer and fall
were dry and the labor shortage at
plant-setting time cut the county's
gross strawberry revenue below half
a million dollars and next years
hopes are dropping. Farmers fee!
pretty certain, after the fourth con-
secutive disappointment, that either
drouth, man-power shortage, late
frost or bureaucratic price-fixing will
finally ruin them.
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