PICKING AND PACKING SMALL FEUIT FOR MARKET. 269 



PICKING AND PACKING SMALL FRUITS FOR MARKET. 



C. E. OLDER, LUVERNE. 



In the picking and packing of small fruits for market it is nec- 

 essary that great care be exercised in handling and sorting so it 

 may make a good and creditable appearance when it reaches the 

 retailer's tables. New, clean packages are imperative, and they 

 should also be of a size to most readily accommodate those who 

 have the handling of them. They should be as even in appearance 

 as possible in the same package. If part of the berries are small, 

 put all of the small ones together and the larger ones by themselves, 

 as a nice even lot of small berries if they are neat makes a better ap- 

 pearance than a mixed lot of any kind. 



The quart boxes in crates that are usually used for strawberries 

 seem to be about the right thing for them. They are also very good 

 for currants and gooseberries, but they are a failure for raspberries, 

 and the pint boxes are not very much better, as in one warm night 

 they will mould and spoil. I think a square shallow box, so con- 

 structed that the boxes when filled have about two or three layers, 

 holding a pint or quart, would carry raspberries safely double 

 the time that they will keep when put in deep boxes, as they general- 

 ly are at present. I have tried this plan on a small scale, and I 

 would suggest that our fruit growers give this idea a little thought 

 and a fair trial. In picking berries of any kind do not touch them 

 when the vines are wet;. they will look "mussy" the best you can 

 do. Raspberries and gooseberries are not so bad as other kinds, 

 however, but I do not like to disturb them when they are very wet. 



In gathering plums we pick the largest and some of the thickest, 

 to thin out, just as soon as they nicely begin to ,ripen, and this 

 thinning out gives the balance a chance, and they grow almost as 

 large as the first lot, and we think we get a better yield by so do- 

 ing. Now when gathering plums, what do you put them in ? 

 Usually in our part ot the state we use baskets, holding one bush- 

 el or one and one-half bushels. With this amount in one basket do 

 you not readily see that if the plums are ripe or nearly so the 

 weight of this mass will crush and destroy a good share of the fruit 

 in the bottom of the basket? Can we not have a crate containing 

 eight boxes or baskets of one-half peck each, making one bushel of 

 plums in a crate and selling at retail for about thirty-five cents 

 per box, something on the plan that the California plums are put 

 up. I believe that the better prices, as well as the better satisfaction 

 to ourselves, would more than compensate for the added cost of the 

 baskets and crates. 



