98 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



In the spring as soon as the plants are uncovered and thor- 

 oughly thawed out, they ought to be cultivated pretty well to 

 keep the ground in good condition, and at this season a dose 

 of wood ashes and bone is a very good thing for the plants. 

 I would not recommend any highly nitrogenous fertilizer at 

 that period unless the plants lack foliage. If they do, put on 

 some stimulating fertilizer like nitrate of soda. That ought 

 to be used at the rate of not more than 250 pounds to the acre, 

 applied in three doses, mixed with something like loam or sand 

 and distributed fairly evenly. If it is applied just before the 

 plants are in blossom or at the time there is green fruit on 

 them, you are apt to get a large berry, very insipid in character 

 and with practically no quality to it at all. So if you can 

 keep it away from the plant at that season, all the better. Try 

 to grow your foliage the year before, and never use any highly 

 nitrogenous fertilizer in the spring. But generally potash and 

 phosphoric acid ought to be given in some mild form. Wood 

 ashes, bone meal, or a little dissolved bone black is a very good 

 thing to use at that time. 



Now the question of picking comes up very seriously to 

 many of us, because oftentimes we grow more berries than we 

 can pick. Again you have got to consider your locality, how 

 you can manage help at that season, because if you cannot get 

 help to pick the berries it is no use to grow them. We have to 

 employ the Italians now a great deal. They are the best pickers 

 we can get. We are trying to eliminate the children, that we 

 used to have, because they do a great deal more damage as a 

 rule than good. They will pick for a little while very nicely 

 but get tired quickly, and like all children they want to go and 

 play for a while. But I find the Italians are the most satis- 

 factory help we can get. They will work fourteen hours a 

 day during the season when we are extremely busy and they 

 pick the berries very carefully. We always pick in two quali- 

 ties. And there is something I want to emphasize very strongly. 

 All berries that are to be sorted should be sorted in the field, 

 never handled twice. Each picker should always take two 

 baskets and pick the poor ones into one and the good ones into 

 the other, and in that way the berries are handled less and they 

 are in better condition when they arrive in the market, even 

 though the market may be very near by. Take a box that has 



