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Many more were employed by its members on their individual operations. There were, of course, berry-picking champions. In 1960, Barbara Doyle picked 400 boxes in a single day on the farm of Wilbur Jay. This spec- tacular performance was exceeded some years later, when larger and more easily picked berries than the Senator Dunlaps had been introduced, by Raymond Innes who picked 543 boxes in one day While in the employ of Elmer Jay.

In 1963, the strawberry growers of the Pisquid area completed a new and modern processing plant which replaced an old building, the for- mer Clark Bros. warehouse, which they had been using for several years. Capable of handling 40,000 boxes a day, the plant featured a cooling room where the berries could be held pending processing.

The industry did not, of course, operate without difficulties. Fear that it could be killed by over—production unless acreage controls were introduced, and apprehension over the increasing quantities of cheap Mexican berries being imported into Canada, led to a movement for the establishment of a Strawberry Commodity Board. The Board was not established, but, in 1971, the Federal Government did subject all ship— ments into Canada below set foundation prices to a surtax. A much more serious problem came with the severe Winter weather of 1971—72 which caused such destruction of plants that, whereas in 1971 the Mount Ste- wart Exchange had handled 600,000 boxes, in 1972 only 25,000 boxes of berries were picked.

The Exchange failed to recover from the effects of this disaster. The decreased volume due to frost kill would have raised production costs from lo a box to 4c, and the firm did not have the financial resources to undertake this. When an application was made to the Department of Regional Economic Expansion for Federal assistance, the company was bluntly informed that DREE was not interested in “pulling someone out of the hole but would be glad to offer assistance to a new industry.” The firm’s 25 years of experience in pioneering an important Island industry had become a liability. The sequel came on June 14, 1974 When the Guardian announced that tenders would be accepted for the sale of the Exchange.

Fishing

The fishing interests of Mount Stewart have always directed their attention to the waters off Savage Harbour and those of the Hillsbor- ough River. Over the years, the Savage Harbour fishing grounds, with their bountiful reserves of lobsters, cod, herring and mackerel, have played host to hundreds of fishermen, while the nearby canneries have provided profitable employment for many hundreds more. Less important econo- mically, the Hillsborough fisheries of smelts, eels, oysters and gasperaux have, nonetheless, been a good source of supplementary income for many residents of the area.

Lobsters, always of first importance to Savage Harbour fishermen, were far more numerous during the 19th century than they are today. After the August Gale of 1873, a North-shore canner reported that the lobsters driven ashore formed a row from 1 to 5 feet deep and that there Were an average of 1,000 of them to every 2 rods of shoreline. By 1885 there were 80 canneries located at various points along the Province’s

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