62 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



you will probably have regular customers who will want a basket or 

 two each day. Many of your neighbors will want a few quarts to 

 put up for winter. The church is going to have a strawberry festival 

 and will have a crate or two. The demand for them will surprise 

 you, for the season is short, not longer than three weeks, and they 

 have to be eaten while they are here. If you have a surplus, send 

 them to some reliable commission house, that will sell them for you 

 for a small sum, usually ten per cent. This makes it an object for 

 him to sell at good figures. The higher the price the more he 

 receives and the better satisfaction it gives to the part}- who ships 

 them. We have usuall}^ sent our surplus berries to Boston. During 

 the summer season we have a boat daily each way. The ben*ies 

 are picked in the afternoon, put aboard the boat at five o'clock, and 

 if the weather is not fogg}' or rain}', they arrive in Boston the next 

 morning by daylight in good shape. If the weather is damp they 

 are apt to grow mouldy, and in this damaged condition sell lower. 

 But we have to take the risk, and do not get man}' such days during 

 the berr}' season. They should never be allowed to get over-ripe. 

 In fact, those to be shipped or sent a long distance should be picked 

 as soon as they have turned and before they are fairly ripe. 



The}' should never be picked directly after a rain storm or in wet, 

 foggy weather. While the fruit and foliage are damp the berries are 

 soft and should not be handled until the sun comes out or the foliage is 

 dried by winds. Picked in this way not only is their beauty destroyed, 

 but their keeping qualitiiis also. 



YIELD PER ACRE. 



Different results are given in different localities. Much depends 

 on the nature of the soil, the condition of the ground and the care 

 that has been given them during the growing season. If there was 

 a good set of plants, the rows perfect and no portion of the ground 

 winter killed, a fair yield would be from seventy-five to one hundred 

 bushels per acre. Where extra care has been given plants, the run- 

 ners cut close and no weeds allowed to grow, the yield has been very 

 large, something like three hundred bushels. It is claimed by the 

 parties who introduced the Crescent Seedling that this variety, under 

 very favorable circumstances, made the enormous yield of fifteen 

 thousand quarts or over four hundred and sixty-six bushels per acre. 

 But in ordinary field culture I should say that one hundred bushels 

 was a very good yield. Generally there is some portion of the ground 

 where the water stands or it is naturally damp and cold and plants 



