STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 63 



will winter kill. I have always noticed this, no matter how well the 

 ground was underdrained. 



PRICES. 



The prices have not been ver3' satisfactory to growers within the 

 last two years. This season the}' were sold as low as eight cents per 

 quart in our home markets, and in Boston the best Maine berries 

 brouo-ht but fourteen cents, while some were sold as low as six cents. 

 This left the orrower but little after taking out the freight, commission, 

 cartage and the expense of picking ; and when we add to this the 

 wear of crates and loss of baskets, there is not much mone}- in the 

 business. But the two past seasons I believe to be exceptions, and 

 do not think prices will remain where they have been. The principal 

 cause of these low prices was the receipt of large quantities of fine 

 berries from Western New York, which came to market with the 

 Maine berries. The market was overstocked — an over production 

 we might su}' — and they retailed about the streets three boxes for 

 a quarter. Those received during damp weather were almost 

 unsalable and closed out at two or three cents a box to the canning 

 factories, berries of better qualit}' than the}' had paid twelve cents 

 for earlier in the season. Our berries, the bulk of the crop, do not 

 reach the market until the middle of July, and the people are not so 

 anxious to bu\' after they have had a constant supply for nearly 

 three months. The large markets commence to receive them in 

 refrigerator cars from Florida in the early spring, some of the first 

 berries selling from one to three dollars per quart. They are not 

 sent in large quantities at these figures. Not man}' people care to 

 buy them and they are only used at wedding parties, swell dinners 

 and other grand events among the aristocracy. When very scarce 

 they bring fancy prices, five dollars per quart or more. 



In regard to fancy prices paid for berries and the amount used by 

 the Boston market (which is the market for Maine berries) for the 

 season, I wrote a letter to a friend of mine, a dealer, and received 

 the following answer, which explains itself: 



Boston, Oct. 27, 1886. 



A. J. Tolman, Dear Sir : Yours received this morning, and it came very 

 opi)ortune as there was a meeting of the largest strawberry receivers to- 

 day, and I laid your questions before them. The first question : What is 

 the largest price of hot-house berries; a man gave a dinner at Wellesley, 

 Mass., and gave four dollars a quart for sixteen quarts of berries. This is 

 the highest price that I can ascertain was ever actually paid in Boston. 



