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Berrying - a Timeline

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Hamus with raspberries.
1915
Mission, BC

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1891
In February 1891, an article in The British Columbian talked enthusiastically about the hop crop as a viable industry.

"Many farmers in the locality are making preparations for this purpose. Mr. Robert Garner is preparing eight acres, and Mr. James Kipp six, and others are taking steps to go into hop raising extensively. This is just the climate, and there is no better land, and we predict a great success, as it is a very profitable crop. "

"The British Columbian, February17, 1891"

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Strawberry Farm
1900
Mission, BC

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1900,s
In the early 1900s, J. H. Lawrence of Hatzic had planted his 15 acres with rhubarb between rows of apple trees.

In 1908 Edward James Abbott showed the diversity of his products with this harvest report:
Strawberries - 1900 cases of 24
boxes each
Raspberries - 1900 cases of 24
boxes each
Blackberries - 900 cases of 24
boxes each
Rhubarb - 5 tons, 250
boxes of 40 pounds each
Plums - 5 tons, 500 crates
of 20 pounds each
Apples - 200 boxes of 40
pounds each
Crabapples - 54 boxes of 40
pounds each
Pears - were a failure this
season
Cherries,
currants and
peaches - 30 cases

Gross value, a little over $5000. Strawberries being very low in price cut down in price this year cut down about $2000.
Abbott, grew a particular variety of strawberry called the 'Victoria', which was later renamed the 'British Sovereign'. This particular stock dominated the berry industry in Mission for over 30 years, being cherished for its sweet, hairless fruit that ripened from the outside in, as well as its exceptionally prolific plants that were capable of producing five tons of berries per acre.

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Hatzic.
1912
Hatzic - Mission, BC

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1910,s
In 1910, the Fraser Valley Record announced that Mission would remain the "strawberry metropolis," while Hatzic was deemed the "rhubarb metropolis" of the province. At the peak of the season in 1910, 4500 crates each of strawberries and rhubarb were sent from Mission, in addition to six to seven hundred crates of raspberries.

Berry fever grew in the mid 1910s and lasted well through the 1920s. Business in 1911 was sufficient to warrant a once-every-twenty-minutes ferry service from Mission to Matsqui, allowing buyers and much-needed berry pickers to cross.

In the summer of 1914, there were approximately 50 acres of strawberries and approximately 182 acres of raspberries growing in the Mission-Hatzic area. Six years later, there were 447 acres of strawberries and 582 acres of raspberries. Fruit prices rose from 5 cents a pound in 1915 to 22 cents a pound in 1921. The berry was in big demand.

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Mission Cannery.
1920
Mission, BC

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King Beach Factory. Mr. King, Dick Wilson, Vera Stykes.
1920
Mission, BC

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King Beach Factory. Mr. Dick Wilson, Velma Stokes.
1916
Mission, BC

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1920,s
In the 1920s, a crate of the area's best berries was shipped via Trans-Canada North Star to King George V each year on his birthday. This gave rise to the widely known tidbit claiming that Mission strawberries were so popular that even the King of England ate them.

In the twenties, many berry farms had cropped up to cope with the berry demand. The average farm spanned about twenty acres, but there were some larger establishments, like the Island Fruit Farm, better known as the Shook farm. It sprawled across Hatzic Island and was one of the largest and most well known of the area's berry farms. Under the ministrations of Mr. Merlon Frank Shook, the farm expanded from its original 20 acres of Cuthbert raspberries to a hundred and ten acres of berries alone.

Smaller enterprises were not to be left out of the action. J.A. Tupper of Rosemeade Farms in Dewdney had been in the dairying business but crossed over into fruit growing in the twenties. He grew strawberries, loganberries, blackberries, rhubarb, and raspberries - forty tons worth in 1920! At 400 dollars gross per ton, with 25 percent of the profits going to the pickers and a bit more to the farm hands. Mr. Tupper was so optimistic about the berry prospect that he busied himself preparing a 1,300 dollar house for his pickers.

A 1924 order from Britain for $100,000 worth of canned fruits and jams set the farmers in a frenzy of new plantings. King Beach jam factory rode the berry wave and invested in a 200-acre berry farm in Dewdney, complete with a two-story building with accommodations and recreational facilities for the berry pickers.

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Strawberry Farm.
1927
Hatzic Prairie, Mission, BC

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Berry Pickers.
1930
Shook Farm, Hatzic Island, BC

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As the Berry Industry grew so did the need for pickers. These are some of the pickers at the "Shook" Berry farm.