“Carolina Farm
Comment” By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, North Carolina State College,
Raleigh, as published in the Wilmington
Morning Star Feb. 11, 1946.
North Carolina has a little known industry that is proving
to be extremely profitable to 40 or more farmers having a part in it. All of us
know about the wild huckleberries or Sampson blues of southeastern North
Carolina. Few of us know about the fine cultivated blueberries grown in that
section, however, and which sold for about 50 cents a pint last season.
North Carolina is developing a blueberry industry which is
expanding slowly but surely. At the present time, there are between 900 and
1,000 acres planted to these tame or cultivated blueberries and additional
acres will be set as quickly as varieties resilient to disease and of high
quality are developed. The 40 farmers, largely in Pender, Duplin, and Sampson
counties, who are growing the berries have from 25 to 40 acres each.
The first growers came down from New Jersey and found the
climate and soil suitable for the varieties of berries which had been developed
in the state. Now, under the guidance of E.B. Morrow, research horticulturist
of the Experiment Station, local growers are propagating their own plants and
are working with Morrow in making new selections and crosses to start new and
more adaptable varieties.
10 VARIETIES
Mr. Morrow says the varieties largely used at the present
time are the Cabot, Weymouth, Rancocas, June, Stanley, Rubel, Jersey, Scammell,
Concord, and the Dixie.
The Cabot is an early variety and was one of the first
planted in that section but it is largely going out now because of being
subject to a disease known as the blueberry canker, Morrow says the growers
have been making resistant selections from the old variety, however, and that a
new resistant strain seems to be on its way. The Rancocas variety is resistant
to a virus disease, which the growers call “stunt” because it stunts the
growing plants. This Rancocas, therefore, is being used as a stock parent plant
in almost all of the breeding work being done.
One of the interesting things happening down there is in
selections which Morrow has made of wild varieties gathered in the vicinity of
Grandfather’s Mountain in northwestern North Carolina. He is crossing these on
a species known as “Rabbiteye,” which is grown in northern Florida and southern
Georgia.
GOOD FLAVOR
The wild variety from our western North Carolina mountains
is hardy, the fruit has a good blue color, and a wonderful flavor. In fact, all
the fruit grown in our western section has these desirable qualities. Apples
grown up there seem to taste better than the insipid stuff that our dealers
ship in to our stores from other sections of the country.
Anyway, the “Rabbiteye” variety is, as one would expect,
very productive. It grows well in the poor soils of northern Florida and
southern Georgia and is vigorous in its vegetative growth. Morrow wants to
combine the fine color, high quality and hardiness of our mountain berries with
the productivity of the South Georgia kind and get a variety with the desirable
qualities of both. He says he is making progress. This new variety should be
adapted to a wide range of soil and climate and perhaps more farmers will be
able to grow the blueberries when he perfects this new strain.
HEAVY ACREAGE
One of the largest growers of tame blueberries in the state
is Harold G. Huntington of Atkinson on the western edge of Pender County. Mr.
Huntington has about 100 acres set to the plants although he is now resetting
much of his old acreage due to the ravages of disease among some of the older
varieties and his adoption of some of the newer varieties now being developed.
Blueberry plants are set in rows eight feet wide and four feet apart on the
row, making about 1,360 plants to an acre. Under ordinary conditions, the
berries produce an average of 200 of the 12-pint crates per acre.
It is not unusual, however, for yields as high as 400 crates
an acre to be secured. Before the war, these berries sold for 20 to 25 cents a
pint. Figure, therefore, 12 pints to a crate and 400 crates to an acre on 10
acres selling for 50 cents a pint and you have some idea as to the income
secured by one grower last year. But this income is not all net profit. The
pint cups are wrapped in cellophane, and the berries are carefully graded, and
it costs considerable money to start and manage one of the orchards.
BEDS IRRIGATED
Mr. Huntington has an irrigation system which cost him
around $10 or $15,000 and this is kept only as an insurance policy against destructive
drouths. In the main, however, the growers say that the water table is so near
the surface in that section that they do not believe irrigation will ever be
needed generally. But in other ways, also it takes lots of capital to start a
blueberry farm. Once the plants are set and in production, however, the returns
are very satisfactory.
Emmett Morrow is doing much of his research on the farm of
Gale Harrison of Ivanhoe. Mr. Harrison is growing a number of blueberry
seedlings and selections in cooperation with the fruit scientist and much
valuable information is being secured. The owner has about 50 acres of berries
in his commercial orchard.
He is known as a good businessman and a successful
grower. He has an up-to-date packing plant which not only gives him a superior
product for chipping but also allows him to store any excess or overflow
berries that cannot be shipped on the day picked. These are stored overnight
and packed the next morning when the heavy dews of that section make it unwise
to harvest additional berries so early in the day.
COOLS MEAT, TOO
Harrison also uses his pre-cooling plant to cure meat for
his neighbors. Last year, the folks in that whole section kept the plant busy
curing their meat. In fact, the demand became so heavy that Harrison took a
trip up to Lumberton to see J.E. Nance, pioneer freezer locker operator, so
that he might learn exactly how to use these freezing plants for successful
meat curing. The neighbors say he is doing a good job for them.
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