The Partial Observer by Robert G. Huntington

Former Springfield Farmer Honored at Festival

At this year’s North Carolina Blueberry Festival in Burgaw, again host to 45,000 visitors, special recognition was awarded to Harold G. Huntington—former Springfield, New York pioneer blueberry farmer—who was represented by his surviving family, Robert G., Mary H. and John F. Huntington, VIP guests of Burgaw Mayor Olivia Newsom. This recognition comes on the 100th anniversary of Huntington’s start of America’s cultivated blueberry industry in 1923.

Harold Huntington founded the cultivated blueberry business in both New Jersey and North Carolina, originating respectively in 1923 and 1928 and each now totaling more than $50 and $85 million annually. He was responsible for developing and bringing to market the original hybrid varieties of the high bush blueberry that has become a major agribusiness in North Carolina, New Jersey, Michigan and, more recently, South America. Several of his brands are still active.

Huntington divided his time between his 140-acre dairy farm in Springfield and his 1,600-acre North Carolina and New Jersey blueberry enterprises. The Springfield farm was operated for many years by his wife, Mary Helen Huntington, followed by her developing the Cooperstown area’s first motel, Deer Run, now the Malton Place Glimmerglass Opera residence facility.

Huntington’s original plant research was in New Lisbon, New Jersey, followed by Pender County, North Carolina. His development has had a significant economic impact on these areas, and over the years has helped remediate the collapse of the tobacco leaf growing industry in North Carolina. An historical excerpt from the festival’s website, http//www.ncblueberryfestival.com, recounts Mr. Huntington’s pioneering involvement in this industry’s development:

“Over seventy years of cultivating blueberries in Southeastern North Carolina: Harold Graham Huntington was born in Montclair, New Jersey in December of 1897. His father was in Dutch Guiana (now Surinam) working as a mine development engineer and couldn’t return due to the difficulties leading to the Spanish American War. Harold’s father returned later, taught physics, and was a lecturer in the New York City area. During this time, he invented a color mixing machine for use in teaching physics and continued a lifelong interest in botany, especially exploring bogs and swamps for orchids.

“Huntington attended Erasmus High School in Brooklyn, and Dartmouth College before he enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War I. He earned his wings and flew biplanes. Before the war he was involved in the farmer cadet program that enrolled young females to learn about farming. His love of farming grew from this experience.

“A breakthrough occurred when he developed a method of mass rooting of cuttings. The method used raised beds, root stimulants and tobacco cloth that covered the nursery frame. The production and sale of thousands of cuttings enabled him to save enough money to consider purchasing land south of New Jersey in order to produce a crop that ripened earlier than those in New Jersey. He and his father, Frederick Wolcott Huntington, began researching soil types and climates along the east coast. They drove a Dodge touring car (some report a Model T) south along the tidewater areas of Virginia and North Carolina. He was searching for sandy and peat soil with a pH of slight acidity and cold enough winters for the blueberry bushes to ‘rest’ and become dormant during the winter season.

“The varieties of blueberries in that time needed frost and freezing time to become dormant. They interviewed locals in Southeastern North Carolina and learned that wild blueberries grew abundantly in the piney woods some miles from the Atlantic Ocean. They drove into Pender County, examined the available parcels for sale, and found that Will Corbett was selling part of the Corbett Plantation. They walked along Mary Slocum Road, which would have been one of the boundaries of the new farm, and spotted Venus fly traps and deeper into the land about a mile from the Beatty’s Bridge Road discovered a bog which later became named Shakey Bay because one could jump on one side of the 40-acre bog and another could feel the vibrations on the other side. It also looked very promising for cultivating blueberries.

“In 1927, he purchased 1,640 acres from Mr. Corbett and began the tedious task of clearing the land with mules, axes, and men. The first field that was cleared was about a 50-acre plot along the road. He planted some of his rooted cuttings knowing that the first crop would require three or four years to develop. At the same time, he began rooting new cuttings across from the family home that was under construction. The sequence was clear the fields, plant bushes and then take care of living accommodations.

“During the 1930s, Huntington purchased a tractor and eventually several tractors as well as a caterpillar that was used to pull stumps and drag drainage ditches when they became clogged with brush. His first crop appeared in the early 1930s and he sold it through the Tru Blu Association in New Jersey.

“Year after year he cleared more land and planted more than 150 acres of blueberries. During pruning and spraying/dusting seasons, more and more workers were hired. In late spring he hired pickers from the surrounding towns. At first the pickers were brought to the farm in flatbed trucks. Later, benches were installed in the trucks and in the 1950s school buses were used to transport the workers. At the peak of his New Jersey and North Carolina production, he hired more than 1,000 pickers and several dozen packers and field workers. It was during this time that Huntington took 16mm movies of both farms, fields and workers. Each picker carried a cardboard tag with string attached to wear around their neck. At first punches were used to tally the number of pounds picked. After realizing that some of the pickers would counterfeit the punches, punches with special designs were ordered. The packers were paid according to the number of pints packed. Field workers and shed managers were paid hourly wages. Before each payday, Huntington would bring tens of thousands of dollars home, place it in a metal box under a bed, and use it the next day to pay the pickers, packers, shed managers, and field workers. Coin dispensing machines were thought to be unreliable, so a large line of workers would queue to receive their pay in cash. Fortunately no robberies occurred.

“During the latter part of the 1930s, Huntington decided that irrigation would be useful during droughts and to help prevent frost damage to the early blossoms. He hired Cyrus Butler from Charlotte to engineer the pumping station and the wellhead. A Caterpillar engine was used to pump the water through six-inch mains to the fields where sprinkler heads watered the crop. In order to water all the fields, the main pipelines had to be moved and this required a crew of workers. The system produced enough water to supply the needs of a town.

“Canker, a virus-produced disease, plagued the crops in the 1930s and 1940s and the losses of production for several years were significant. Huntington contacted North Carolina State University to arrange experimental stations that would attempt to grow new varieties of blueberries that were disease resistant. He had experimental plots on the farm for both blueberries and grasses that were intended to be planted between rows to crowd out the local grasses that robbed the bushes of nutrients. African witch grass was one of the varieties grown. None of the grasses was found to be useful, but new varieties of blueberries were developed. The Wolcott and Murphy varieties were developed in North Carolina. The Wolcott was named after Harold’s father, the Murphy for a local blueberry farmer. These varieties as well as others saved blueberry farming in North Carolina.”

Robert (Byng) Huntington and his wife, Pat, were retired both in Cooperstown and Springfield for 20 years before moving to Prospect, Kentucky in 2015.