90 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



possible to get them picked at times, so, oi course, the loss was very 

 heavy, as it usually is under such conditions. The rains were so 

 heavy that in some cases nearly half the berries would be washed 

 away when ripe, or holes washed in them. We have nearly thirty 

 varieties of strawberries fruiting, but we thin them out as we find 

 them wanting. Some of them that did the best with us are the 

 Bederwood, Qyde, Lovett, Warfield, Enhance, Carrie, Senator 

 Dunlap, Sample, Aroma, Brandywine. The "Rough Rider" is cer- 

 tainly a rough one with us and is not worthy of trial, like a good 

 many others with new fancy names just made up to sell. In re- 

 gard to the market it would seem as though the growers of small 

 fruits could come together and build a canning plant or plants, so 

 that whenever the market is glutted the surplus could be canned and 

 sold for a great deal more than selling them under those conditions. 

 The fruit growers of Long Lake and Minnetonka have already or- 

 ganized and ship their goods all over the country, and they are 

 handled by a few experienced salesmen. In this way there is no 

 cutting of prices, etc. But with a canning plant in connection it 

 seems as though they could guarantee a fair price and could pro- 

 tect their markets. They could also can their inferior berries or 

 those which are all right, but perhaps a trifle too soft for long ship- 

 ments. In this way only the very best should be allowed to go out 

 and there would be no glutting of market, as in nearly every case 

 a shipment of poor fruit will glut any market, as the dealers want 

 the best or nothing. 



The St. Paul market was saved by the large car\ning firms which 

 paid seven cents per qt. for everything that was left on the market, 

 otherwise they would have probably sold for two or three cents at 

 times. 



It means a great deal to the grower to have a place to dump his 

 poorer products or the surplus, and it seems possible that the man- 

 agers of the fruit growers' association could hire competent canners 

 to can their surplus fruit. This would save the poor housewife, 

 although it seems possible every grower of any size could have a 

 plant of his own and hire the pickers to stem the berries, etc., and 

 have an experienced person to look after it. This is only a sugges- 

 tion, but the writer is figuring on a deal of this kind now. as we 

 picked over 2,000 quarts a day last summer. 



