May pea shipments from Elizabeth City are not expected to begin moving earlier than May 1st.
Shipments in bulk will hardly begin moving freely until about 10 days or two weeks later, according to predictions of leading growers and shippers in this section.
May peas last year had begun moving by this time and last year’s crop was regarded as rather late. This year’s crop, however, promises to be late beyond all records since May peas became a leading truck crop in this section.
Not only is the crop late. According to estimates now being made by local shippers, it is also short—as much as 50 per cent short, some shippers think. “The plant has been dwarfed and stunted by the severe cold of the early spring,” said W.H. Jeannette of the commission firm of Jeannette Brothers, Wednesday morning. “Besides, rot has set in in many instances following damage by cold, wet weather. In my opinion, though the acreage this year is perhaps double that of any previous year, this year’s crop will not be any larger than last year’s.”
Growers are not worrying over much about the matter of a short crop, as they have hopes that the shorter the crop, the better the price will be. A heavily increased planting of May peas this year resulted from good prices last spring, when farmers made money on peas in an off year on potatoes, and from sensationally high prices last fall, when certain Elizabeth City planters got record prices of $10 to $14 a basket for peas shipped in November. Such prices meant approximately $1,000 an acre to the growers.
This spring the yield, say, 40 per cent short, a yield of 60 baskets to an acre would be looked for; which at $10 a basket will bring the growers $600 an acre.
Up to last fall, however, $4 and $5 a basket had been considered a high price for May peas.
From the front page of The Daily Advance, Elizabeth City, N.C., April 18, 1923
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