Chapter III: Part 3

In 1888 Mr. Smith sold the beach, extending from the line of the Falmouth Wharf Company west to the land now covered by the harbor, to George H. Davis.

One of the old rivers had long since been filled and the other changed its course so often through the beach that the town was obliged to set stone posts to define the middle line and establish a definite boundary.

When the land was finally acquired by the State, the channel was cut through the land of the widow of George H. Davis on the eastern side and a small triangular piece on the western side belonging to Henrietta F. Goodnow.

On February, 18, 1909, the harbor and Land Commissioners advertised another hearing in regard to the "Improvement of Deacon's Pond Harbor" and still another on February 24, 1910.

After these hearings had been held and improvements made, the channel was wide and deep enough to permit schooners to enter.

However, the sand drifted in and on March 11, 1911, there was another hearing called in regard to removing a "shoal at the entrance to the harbor" and about 32,000 cubic feet of earth was then removed.

Since then other deepenings have been made until now, during the summer season, it is a common sight to see some sixty boats of all descriptions lying in the water.

In 1921 the harbor was further improved by extending the jetty on the west side about 200 feet into Vineyard Sound.

BASS RIVER

There's a gently flowing river,
Bordered by whispering trees,
That ebbs and flows in Nobscussett
And winds through Mattacheese.

Surely the Indian loved it
In the ages so dim and gray,
River beloved of the Pale Face
Who dwell near its banks today.

Lovely it lies in the moonlight,
A silver scroll unrolled,
And glorious when the sunset
Turns it to molten gold.

Yet we love it when the mist clouds
Hang over it like a pall;
No less when the hand of the Frost King
Holds it in icy thrall.

In all of its moods and changes
We joy in its billows salt,
With the deep strong love of a lover
Blinded to every fault.

Always its gleaming beauty
Raises our thoughts from the clod;
Up, up to the crystal river,
That flows from the Throne of God.

They pass on,--the generations,--
Thou stayest, while men depart;
They go with thy lovely changes
Shrined in each failing heart.

Beautiful old Bass River!
Girt round with murmuring trees;
Long wilt thou flow in Nobscussett.
And wander through Mattacheese.

ARETHUSA.

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A CORRECTION

The article in our May issue, "Automobile Tour of Cape Cod," was written before the advent of automobiles to Nantucket, and therefore did not take account of the fact that autos are now not only allowed but plentiful there. The fact that the article was not up to date escaped the attention of the editor.

CAPE CODE NOTES

The Harwich Independent says: Indications are that the coming summer will be another record breaker along our shores. A big building boom is on in cottages now under construction, and we are to have new comers from New York, Boston, and other places. Cottages for rental are being rapidly taken.

* * * * *

Artist George Elmer Browne left America for France the first of May with a class of 40 pupils. Mrs. Browne and Miss Hallett will accompany him for the summer. Provincetown will miss the Brownes this summer, but wishes them a pleasant and successful season abroad.

* * * * *

Charles A. Atwood, night operator in the Sagamore telephone exchange, has been awarded a Theodore N. Vail medal for his services on the occasion of a night fire in the building where the exchange is located, March 27, 1921, when he made his way through the smoke to the switchboard and gave the alarm first to the Keith Car Works and next to the local fire chief. After that he was overcome by the smoke, and the staircase was on fire when he was revived. He got back into the operating room after that and remained on duty the rest of the night.

* * * * *

William Ellis and his son George were hunting driftwood along the beach in the neighborhood of Peaked Hill bars, at the Provincetown end and came on a sack lying in the tidewash, which was found to contain 200 pounds of gamboge. It is thought their find came from the wreck of the ship Peruvian, which met its fate on those shoals Dec. 26, 1872, as no other vessel has since been wrecked there which had gamboge as a part of its cargo. The gamboge was said to be in perfect condition, in spite of its long immersion in the sea water. Gamboge is a resin, orange red in color, but yellow when in powder form. It was used in medicine as an emetic and artists, especially those using water colors will recall it as a yellow pigment.

* * * * *

Dr. B.D. Eldredge of Harwich passed his 90th birthday on Monday, May 1st. This extreme age has dealt very lightly with the Doctor whose general appearance is much the same as when many years younger, but his step and carriage show some infirmity. He is destined to add another decade of life, and the many congratulatory greetings extended to him by friends voiced that prediction. Doctor Eldredge is still in professional practice.

* * * * *

The "Emperor Jones," Eugene G. O'Neill's, of Provincetown, drama, has been produced in Boston. The Provincetown players may be said to have done themselves well by presenting as a maiden effort in Boston, this play by O'Neill in which Charles Gilpin plays the leading role. "The Emperor Jones" is O'Neill's first offering to Boston theatre world although he learned his trade at Prof. Baker's Harvard 47 Workshop.

* * * * *

In a stock judging contest at the Massachusetts Agricultural College, Amherst, recently, Lawrence High School of Falmouth won second place, scoring 1100 out of a possible 1200 points. Eight teams competed in the contest, with 54 competitors for individual prizes. The team from the Lawrence High School was composed of Arthur Briggs, Edward Briggs and Harold Dushane, and these young men are to be congratulated upon their ability as judges of live stock. They deserve special credit for the reason that the other teams competing were selected from much larger schools than Lawrence High. Mr. Williams, who is taking the place of Mr. Hawkes as agricultural instructor, accompanied the boys to Amherst, the party making the trip by auto.

A DELAYED LETTER

In looking over some old manuscripts the other day the editor came across the following letter which is so full of longing for the country of the writer's ancestry that we publish it herewith, just as it was written in 1918:

Denver, Colorado.

"A state of Maine man, Mr. Dana, has just handed me a copy of your magazine of December, 1917. Because I am a Cape Codder marooned in the Rocky Mountains for 40 years, though I started to run away to sea when I was 8 years old--man proposes, God disposes. I read it through from stem to gudgeon including the poetry and the advertisements. My ancestor, Thomas Baxter, Yarmouth, Mass., married the daughter of Capt. John Gorham, Temperance Gorham Sturgis, widow of Edmund Sturgis, Jr., Jan. 26, 1879. He was a lieutenant under Capt. John Gorham in the great swamp fight, King Philip's war, and that part of Maine (then Massachusetts) called Gorham, was set off to them for services against the Narragansett Indians.

"With such ancestry, followed by worthy descendants, don't you think I have a love for Cape Cod sand? Capt. Gorham's wife was Desire Howland, daughter of John Howland of the Mayflower and the first son of Thomas, John Baxter, married Desire Gorham, June 11, 1706, and with his two brothers built the old mill at Hyannis of which it is sung:

"The Baxter boys they built a mill,
And when it went, it never stood still.
And when it went it made no noise,
Because 'twas built by Baxter's boys."

"I hope to pass my last years in my cottage in South Dennis and to quote from Edna Howes' poem on page 23, entitled 'Who's Worrin'?'

"Cod and haddock, boned and white,
A drying on their flakes,
There's none can beat the cod fish balls
That mother only makes.
And clams and quahogs, scallops, too,
A layin' close at hand
A waitin' and a longin'
To be dug from out the sand."

"My word, Edna, you make my mouth water!

"On page 11 you say that no Canadian lynx or wild cat has been seen on the Cape for 100 years. Make it about 50 years instead, because there was a catamount in South Yarmouth woods in 1867 and I think I saw it--and I could prove it if George Thatcher was alive and had his memory with him.

"How I would enjoy being out in a cat boat off Hyannis, or Dennisport, or North Dennis. Say! if the bluefish haven't been all caught by the time I get there I will certainly try my luck. I would rather catch rock cod, or perch, or tautog, than fill a creel with brook trout, under any conditions, any day in the year; but then you don't care, and I don't care if you don't--but I do."

Yours truly,
JOHN N. BAXTER.

A MILLION QUARTS OF STRAWBERRIES

Cape Cod strawberries are destined to become as famous as her cranberries, her fishing, and her renown as a summer resort. One million quarts of them left her fields the past season! And the industry is still growing!

Cape Cod leads New England in the magnitude of this industry and Falmouth holds the honor of being the home of the Cape Cod strawberry.

There are in Falmouth something over two hundred acres in strawberries, and these acres extend over an area of between six and seven square miles. The berries for the most part are grown on land cleared from woods within the past fifteen years. New land is being cleared each season and the territory is becoming more and more extensive, the industry expanding and Falmouth as a specialized farming center more and more prominent.

The sturdy pioneers of this industry in Falmouth are Portuguese people who drifted to the section from nearby industrial centers like New Bedford and Fall River and who later persuaded their friends and relatives from across the sea to join them in this land of plenty. They are splendid people, hard working, thrifty and industrious, and make most excellent citizens. Although but few have had the opportunity to attend school, they are most intelligent farmers, ready and willing to adopt methods that will financially improve their business. The majority are, however, limited in land area and many times are obliged to crop their small farms to excess, for strawberries are the main cash crop, and very few who have more recently come here have the necessary funds to acquire much land or equipment. The acreage in berries will vary from one-half an acre to four acres. Cultural methods are practically all hand work. The land is cleared by hand, plants set and runners placed by hand, fertilizer applied by hand, hand hoed, hand weeded and naturally hand picked.

The rows are set 4-1/2 to 5 feet apart, plants 14 to 15 inches in the row. The matted row system is used, but instead of allowing runners to set at will, each one is placed. The beds are raised six inches, rows when fully set are from 3-1/2 to 4 feet wide. Pine needles are used for a mulch mainly because they were handy at first, clean of weeds and easy to apply, but the pine needle is getting more and more obsolete, like the tallow candle, and unless the grower changes his method of mulching or else uses a motor truck and goes a long distance he is out of luck in the future.

The industry has seen hard times and about six years ago it was doubtful if it could survive. Growers were working as individuals and selling their berries and buying their fertilizer, crates and baskets. It was not uncommon for one grower to ship his season's crop to as many as seven or eight different commission houses. This all led to confusion. The commission man could not depend on a steady and sure supply. By splitting up a crop in this way the grower actually competed with himself. Finally, by necessity, he was forced to combine with his neighbor and pool a common interest. The growers were guided into a co-operative association, to a large degree, by the assistance of Mr. Wilfrid Wheeler, then Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture.

Mr. George C. Lillie was employed as manager, and right from the start the association rallied and has been gaining ground ever since. At present this association, known as the Cape Cod Strawberry Growers' Association, numbers ninety-eight men. They are incorporated, hold shares in the association, and sell their berries through one commission house instead of seven or eight.

There are two grades of berries sold, only one of which carries the association stamp. Each member has a number which is placed on his crate and about 80 per cent of the crop is shipped under the stamp of the association. The members are paid on Wednesdays and Saturdays during the shipping season. They also pool their fertilizer order of over 200 tons, as well as that for crates and baskets. Payment for these commodities are deducted from returns on the berries. Last season the association shipped about seventy carloads of berries. This is probably over two-thirds of the entire output for Falmouth. Each car holds about 170 80-quart crates, and practically half are shipped in iced cars. The berries leave Falmouth at 9 p.m. and arrive in Boston at 6 a.m. They are there distributed to various points, some going, we understand, as far north as Bangor, Maine.

The varieties grown are Echo, Howard 17, Abington and King Edward. The first named are more common, but indications point to a rapid change to the Howard 17. The Echo berry has proved a splendid variety for this section, as it stands up so well under shipment. The Howard 17 is nearly as good a shipper, but considered a better quality berry and does nicely on our Cape soils. The picking season is from three to four weeks. Pickers are usually paid 2 cents a quart, and a good picker will make from $3 to $4 a day. Five thousand quarts is considered a fair yield per acre for the section.

The members of the association do not put all their eggs in one basket, however. They grow besides strawberries, turnips, corn, potatoes, carrots and raspberries for cash crops. Turnips follow strawberries in volume and last fall the members shipped about twenty-five carloads.--_Falmouth Enterprise_.