INDIANA HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 359 



The ordinaiy iiickers can not do this work, as their ideas of the various 

 grades are all different. Each quart of the same grade should be as near 

 alike as possible, and should contain as large if not larger berries at the 

 bottom as those on top. It makes the grower feel better, to say the 

 least, if he should hear a customer say: "These berries are all right. 

 There are finer berries at the bottom than those on top.' The retailer 

 can also use this to an advantage in selling the fruit at a better price. 

 We need not offer our customers a quart of small, mashed or unattractive 

 berries and ask them the same price as one that has been properly grown, 

 carefully picked and graded. It is useless to spend time in growing fine 

 plants, to be careful in setting them out, to spend money iu buying com- 

 mercial fertilizers, to use the best methods of cultivation, producing a 

 large crop of fine berries, and then neglect to spend a little extra time 

 and money in grading and making the berry attractive, and as a conse- 

 quence selling less and ai a lower price, which will greatly decrease the 

 profits. 



In supplying the home market I believe the berries should be sorted 

 into four grades— Fancy, Choice, No. 1 and Culls, the last to contain al.' 

 that are not fit for market. Of course some varieties, if properly grown, 

 would need but little sorting, yet they would be looked over. The fancy 

 grade should contain all large, perfect berries and be maintained at a uni- 

 form size and the price held the same, as near as possible, through the en- 

 tire season. This grade will go to customers that want the best all the 

 time and are perfectly willing to pay for it. By the berries always being 

 the same they Avill not look elsewhere, but will send in their order to the 

 same place each day. The other two grades can be varied according to 

 the market conditions. If there is a prospect of berries being scarce the 

 next day, more can be made into the choice and less into the No. 1; or if 

 the competitors have nicer berries than the No. 1, then this grade must be 

 made better. The idea is to have the No. 1 as good as those of any com- 

 petitor, and sell these at a price to compete with them, and have the 

 fancy and choice better, which will bring a higher price. 



Earh quart must be well filled and the berries on top turned with the 

 stems down. This takes time and costs money, but there is no other work 

 that returns as great a clear profit and does more to build up a trade in 

 the home market. 



A neatly printed card giving the grower's name and address and stat- 

 ing where the same kind of berries can be secured each day should be 

 placed in each quart of the two better grades. When the berries are 

 emptied the card falls out and shows that the customer has been sent the 

 berries that were ordered. Thus none can use your reputation for fancy 

 berries to sell their own. Your name will not be seen on an old, stained 

 and blackened basket, long past its usefulness as a strawberry quart, yet 

 is used by some growers to market their berries. 



