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TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



or bottoms fall down in handling, which is a serious objection to 

 those roade with tacks. If parties having only a few berries can't 

 afford a machine, they had better buy them from those who make 

 them. Boxes and crates should be new, clean, and neat in appear- 

 ance. Having everything ready for gathering the fruit, each picker 

 fills his or her crate with empty boxes and goes to the field, where 

 they will be given a row by the man who has charge of them in the 

 field. The business of this man is to show them how to pick the 

 berries with from one-half to one inch of stem, taking hold of the 

 stem with the thumb and finger and pinching it off, and laying the 

 berries into the boxes; to see that all the ripe berries are picked, and 

 none taken too green; to keep them on the rows assigned them. 



The assorting of the berries into two classes should be done in 

 the field as they are picked, to save handling, for the less a straw- 

 berry is handled the better. Some pickers will quickly learn to do 

 this assorting, while others you can not teach. 



We are obliged to have the berries looked over after they are 

 brought to the berry-house, unless we know who picked them. 

 After the berries are looked over, they are put into crates and set in 

 a cool place uhtil they are sent to market. 



The practice of many, in putting the largest and finest looking 

 berries on top should be discouraged. The top should show a fair 

 sample of the contents of the box. 



Berries intended for distant markets should be picked a little 

 green; those for home market ripe. 



Each picker is provided with a printed card, as follows: 



The picker keeps the card, and the person who receives the 

 berries the punch. When they bring in the berries the number of 

 quarts is punched out. This is all the account we keep with our 

 pickers. 



