Farmers in Southeastern N.C. Turning to Blueberries and Grapes, 1946

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington Star, October 21, 1946

The southeastern part of North Carolina is designed to become famous for its high quality blueberries. A start has been made; profits from the berries so far planted have been good; and there is a demand for all that can be produced. Those who have established the blueberry orchards naturally are none too enthusiastic about so many others planting the bushes, but there is too great a demand for the new cultivated varieties for the acreage not to be increased. The berries seem to flourish in that part of the state, and there is no reason why it should not become as famous for its berries as it is now for its strawberries.

H.R. Niswonger, extension horticulturist, was in Onslow County the other day visiting with C.C. Clark Jr., Onslow farm agent, who has several farmers in that county interested in growing the blueberries. They selected one 15-acre site on the farm of R.W. Hartsfield of Jacksonville as an ideal spot for blueberry production. Mr. Hartsfield will grow the Weymouth, Rancocas, Stanley, Scamell, and Jersey varieties. 

Primarily a tobacco farmer, Mr. Hartsfield also grows some peanuts, corn, and hay crops. He has an idea that small fruits such as blueberries and grapes will lengthen out his cropping season and tend to keep his labor better occupied throughout the year on a more profitable basis than is the case when he grows tobacco alone as a cash crop. He plans to set out several acres to muscadine grapes as well as blueberries because he believes there is a good market for these two crops in the future.

R.B. Harper, county agent, says that C.A. Jones of Bladen County also is interested in planting blueberries. Mr. Jones is going to dig or blast an 800-foot ditch so as to drain a bay that will be set in blueberry bushes. This combination of blueberries and muscadine grapes, as planned by a number of these eastern North Carolina farmers is going to prove a profitable combination of small fruits for that area in the opinion of Horticulturist Niswonger. He adds that production should be followed by processing plants which would add to the general income of the section.

W.G. Caldwell, assistant farm agent in Moore, has found that where Sandhill farmers have as few as three to 12 vines of muscadine grapes, they get a nice profit from the fruit. Will Richardson of Vass, for instance, gets enough income from his scuppernong grapes to pay the taxes on his farm. A great percentage of the muscadine grapes planted both in the Sandhills and in eastern Carolina are of the scuppernong type; but talking with M.E. Gardner, head of the department of horticulture, I learned that the fruit scientists of the Experiment Station have some new varieties of both white and black muscadines that are going to make our old-time scuppernongs take a back seat. Mr. Gardner says that some fine flavored new varieties are coming and will soon be in production. He mentioned one or two, the Topsail, the new white variety, and the Creswell, a new black one, that are superior to anything which we now have.