Winter Meeting. 3^3 



pick berries for home market or for carload shipments. As the assign- 

 ment of this subject to me for a paper is silent upon these points, I con- 

 clude that it is expected by your committee and the Secretary that I 

 discuss the question in all its phases. Taking this view of our subject, 

 we are again impressed with the feeling of incompetency to write intel- 

 ligently upon it. The market division reaches from the extensive berry 

 fields in South Missouri to Colorado on the west, Minnesota on the north, 

 and New York on the east, hampered by the tail end of a crop that is 

 just finishing on the south, shrouded by the threatening elements, or 

 enveloped in falling torrents, which portend washouts of the railroads 

 on every side. Perplexities multiply and the growers are often made to 

 feel like exclaiming, in the language of our German friend at Pierce 

 City, Mo., when he received his returns on a nice shipment of berries 

 of 12 cents per crate: "T give a dam, I sometimes feel like would soon 

 live as die." This feeling is still further augmented by the ever 

 present philanthropist, who makes it appear that out of solicitude for the 

 success of the grower he is willing to assume great responsibilities and 

 large expense without compensation ; when the truth is, if the main- 

 spring of graft was removed from the spinal column of his anatomy 

 he would not live fifteen minutes. After this brief outline of the 

 besetments and vicissitudes upon every hand that endanger us in our 

 pursuit, ]\'Ir. President, don't you think your committee has handed 

 me a nice Xmas present in giving me this subject? 



Returning to the first division of our subject, how to pick, we sub- 

 mit, what in our opinion are the most important points. For distant 

 shipment in car lots, the stage of ripening with most varieties should be 

 at least three-fourths well colored, with pink showing on greener side. 

 For home market, should remain on the vines one day longer. The fruit 

 at proper stage for picking, in either case, the work is best done by hav- 

 ing careful pickers, who will remove the berries from the vines by 

 pinching off the stems one-half to three-quarters of an inch from the 

 berry. As handling berries with the hands is injurious, it is advisable 

 when the fruit is of such quality as to require sorting, to provide the 

 pickers with boxes for the inferior berries, thus avoiding overhauling 

 and injuring the good berries in sorting out the poor ones. 



In picking, packing and crating, the work should be done as care- 

 fully as possible, avoiding bruising the fruit, for the seed cells once 

 broken the berries deteriorate rapidly. The boxes should be well filled. 

 No one makes a greater mistake than the grower who does not fill his 

 boxes or who puts small berries or trash in the bottom of the box, for the 

 trade soon finds him out. 



