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should be placed in charge of each gang of thirty or forty 

 hands, whose duty it should be to pass back and forth among 

 them constantly, inspecting the work, examining the fruit in 

 the boxes, assigning rows, and keeping order. The berries for 

 distant shipment should be picked as soon as they are colored 

 all over but before they begin to soften. Some varieties will 

 color up nicely in transit if picked a little green. This is a 

 very desirable point in a market berry, for it is often difficult 

 to prevent pickers from taking the fruit as soon as it is col- 

 ored on the upper side. Kinds that do not color after picking 

 will go into market showing so many green sides as to 

 seriously affect prices. In picking the berry should be seized 

 by the stem, pinching it off about half an inch below the fruit, 

 which is then laid in the box with as little handling as pos- 

 sible. This is a point of vital importance. Berries that are 

 seized in the fingers and pulled off are ruined for distant ship- 

 ment, and are made so soft and mussy as to become quickly 

 unfit even for home use or the nearest market. The only ber- 

 ries exposed for sale on the streets of Auburn this season were 

 so damaged by this careless "pulling" that they were unfit 

 for use before noon, though brought from a neighboring town 

 only six or seven miles away. 



Berry pickers are usually paid by the quart, the price 

 ranging from one to two cents in different localities. Accounts 

 are often kept by means of printed pasteboard checks rang- 

 ing in value from one to fifty quarts, that are handed to the 

 picker as the berries are brought into the packing shed. 

 These tickets are cashed at the end of the week or of the 

 season. 



Packing strawberries neatly and rapidly requires skill and 

 nimble fingers. All imperfect berries that are in sight are re- 

 moved, and, if many are found, the box is emptied so that 

 those in the bottom may be picked out also. The berries on 

 the top of the box are then arranged closely side and side so 

 that the box will be evenly and closely filled. If this is not 

 carefully done the fruit will be either too high so as to be 

 crushed by the cover, or not full enough so that the berries 

 will shake about and the box will not seem over half full when 



