Winter Meeting. 203 



The wild berry plants are hard to get rid of in this locality. The 

 winter weeds should be cut out as they will cause the berries to form 

 buttons. Berries on high land succeed best during seasons of late 

 frosts. A few years ago our locality was short of plants for setting on 

 account of the dry weather. Our growers sent off to a number of dif- 

 ferent localities for plants and received a lot of things that a Missourian 

 would hardly call strawberries. We now try to get plants near at home 

 that we know are true to name. Do not plant a lot of varieties as it 

 makes a lot of trouble at gathering time changing pickers from one 

 variety to another, as different varieties have to be handled differently. 



Some have tried sorting the berries at the shed, but this is too 

 much work and bruises the berries. Sorting should all be done by the 

 pickers in the field. 



Some have heard glowing accounts of large returns from small 

 investments in berry growing and have decided that all they have to do 

 to make their fortune, is to hire a lot of berry plants stuck in the 

 ground — anything that is called a strawberry would answer the pur- 

 pose. Such people have usually harvested a large crop of disappointment. 

 Those who plant varieties adapted to their locality and give good care, 

 are reasonably sure of good returns for their labor invested. 



MARKETING THE COMMERCIAL STRAWBERRY CROP. 



(Dr. E. L. Beal, Republic, Mo.) 



The commercial strawberry crop of South Missouri and North- 

 west Arkansas ranks well with the other fruit crops ; and with many 

 farmers is second only to the cereal and live stock interests. The soil 

 and climate are favorable to the production of strawberries of such 

 splendid size, firmness and high flavor that no part of the country 

 excels this section, except the Hood River valley and parts of North 

 Carolina. Our natural advantages are good and sufficient, but the 

 problem of properly marketing the crop is producing in the commer- 

 cial strawberry grower, unmistakable symptoms of premature old age. 

 The story so rosy and flattering emanating from the market centers 

 has been told us so often that it is getting really old. We have had 

 the same experience of jolly good letters, detailing the many reasons 

 why certain firms can handle the crop so profitably to us — the high 

 quotations, and the many favorable conditions there that when we had 

 finally poured into the markets our entire crops and noted the dif- 



