THE PROFITABLE HUCKLEBERRY.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3137, 2 October 1922, Page 8

THE PROFITABLE HUCKLEBERRY.

A Poutiac (Michigan, U.S.A.) message tells of how the huckleberry,, which furnished a staple article of Slimmer diet, fresh, and winter diet, dried., to the Indians in, Chief Pontiac's time, has become one of the valuable assets of Oakland country farms. Lucky is that farmer who possesses on his property one of -the marshes, formerly thought to be so lniieh dead loss. In present years the productive huckleberry marsh will tiring in from £2O to C2OO, 'according to its size, without any work or effort on the part of the owner. All he has to do is to he at the gate when the city berry pickers arrive, charge them 75 cents or a dollar to gel into the marsh For a day. and open the gate. The pickers do all the work in the usual marsh, with thick growth, more or less water, and' lots of inovpiivoes. a bushel pick is a good day's work, and the usual motoring party of four rests content with one to two bushels. The farmer has received four dollars, and. gone about his other business. A few professional pickers are aide to take from two to three bushels of berries out of a, marsh in a day. But the owners of marshes are getting wise to this opportunity of making more money, and consequently many of them have adopted the "shares" plan. They let the picker in for half or a third of his pick, or they let him pick and .sell the berries at four to eight cents a, quart. On. the latter basis, the product of the marsh mounts amazingly. Some of the marshes will produce hundreds of bushels of berries and in this section, unlike the northern Michigan swamps, very few berries go to waste. Pickers frequent them for a month to six weeks in summer, and get about ailthat arc on the hushes. The farmer's family is able to take care of a good many bushels, 100. as pickers, and ;i ready market prevails lor the entire output, often without taking the fruit off the farm to make a sale.