Southern Christian Advocate

WANTS SOUTH CAROLINA TO PLANT STRAWBERRIES

Gov. Thomas G. McLeod, with Mrs. McLeod and a crate of Columbus county, North Carolina, strawberries, returned Thursday afternoon from Whiteville, N. C., the South Carolina chief executive having made the address of the occasion Wednesday at the strawberry festival at Chadburn.

Governor McLeod said yesterday afternoon he was interested in seeing more strawberries and truck planted in portions of South Carolina where he believed they would do as well as in Columbus county, where they have been planted for a number of years.

According to the governor, not only extensive planters but small farmers as well make money, patches of from half an acre to 40 acres being planted. No shipping is necessary as the buyers send representatives to the markets where they view the berries and make bids. Prices range around $7 the crate and from 80 to 100 crates are harvested to the acre.

Governor McLeod said the labor for the harvest--about ten persons being necessary to the acre during the picking season--was obtained from the surplus city labor, two cents the basket being paid the pickers, all of who made good money.

An interesting feature of the occasion to South Carolinians was the fact that the band from the South Carolina Industrial School at Florence furnished the music.

"Columbus county people," the governor declared, "consider the boll weevil has really been a benefit. I saw practically no cotton in that section. These same people also plant tobacco, peanuts, potatoes and truck. Strawberries are especially planted around Chadbourn.

"The soil is similar to that in the lower portions of Sumter and Williamsburg counties, especially between Sumter and Mayesville and Sumter and Oswego, and I see no reason why, with our good roads and trucking facilities, the business could not be scattered throughout these counties.

"The planters tell me that if strawberry sets are put out in July, a crop will be made the following spring, while if they are set out later no fruit will be gathered until a year later."

Governor and Mrs. McLeod spent Wednesday night with relatives of the latter at Whiteville, returning yesterday with the aforementioned crate of juicy berries.--The State.