STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 75 



and number of picker, amount paid per quart, and date of the 

 week, on which it ends, and six columns of figures for a record of 

 the berries picked each working day in the week, column for suna 

 total and cash paid on Saturday, date of ending. These tickets are 

 carried by the pickers through the week, a new daily ticket given 

 each morning and taken up at night, then on Saturday, when we 

 pay off we take up the weekly tickets and file them awaj', and thus 

 in a simple form have a complete record of all berries picked, and 

 in case of loss of a weekly ticket by a picker before the end of the 

 week, we have the daily ones on hand from which to make a new 

 one without loss to any one, thus there is no chance for a picker to 

 lose pay, or for us to pay only just what is due. 



Picking^ except for local markets should not begin till the dew is 

 off in the morning, and not continue through the heat of the day, if 

 pickers enough can be had to gather the crop without it, — from four 

 o'clock until dark is much the best time. The packing shed should 

 be a cool airy place convenient to the field, and here all the fruit 

 should be taken as fast as gathered. A general inspection of the 

 fruit should be given by the person in charge, and packed according 

 to its grade each variety by itself. Baskets or boxes should be new 

 and clean, and made of the whitest wood that it is possible to obtain. 

 All should be as rounding full as can be conveniently packed with- 

 out injury to the fruit. There should be no inferior fruit put in, 

 and that in the bottom and middle of the package should be just as 

 good or better than that on top. 



Having made sure of this, these should be packed in clean, bright 

 crates or boxes, and of the size required by the markets where the 

 fruit is to be sold. We in the east mostly use the square quart 

 American baskets, well ventilated at sides and corners and pack 

 them in thirty-two or fortj-eight-quart crates that are also well venti- 

 lated at sides and ends and are returned when empty. In some 

 sections of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, they 

 use shallow boxes about 14x20 inches called a tra}'. Into these they 

 turn loosely sixteen quarts of berries, and packing four of these, one 

 above the other and a thin cover over the top one, cleats nailed on 

 the sides to hold them together makes a "•stand" containing sixty- 

 four quarts. In the market the berries are scooped up and measured 

 out by the quart, more or less mussed, with a shrinkage of about 

 twelve per cent and yet this abomination appears satisfactory to those 

 that have not learned of any better way. Surely no money can be 

 made on small fruits handled so. 



