314 ANNUAL REPOET 



and rake it bet wen the rows in the spring if there is room for it 

 there, if not remove the most of it, and they will need no more atten- 

 tion until time for picking. 



After picking is over it will sometimes pay to harrow the field and 

 clean it out for another crop, but this is generally a poor policy, and 

 the better way is to plow them under and plant the field to some other 

 crop. 



Good plants for another field may be obtained by thinning the first 

 year's growth before the fiield has ever borne fruit; but never take 

 them from a field after it is exhausted by the production of a crop. 

 We must always select some bisexual variety that will blossom at the 

 same time when we plant the Crescent or a pistillate flowering kind 

 for the main crop. 



PICKING AND PACKING. 



The cost of picking a large field of strawberries will be about one and 

 a half cent per box for the pickers, besides the necessary supervision. 

 Furnish each picker with a carrier holding four or six '• Hallock" quart 

 boxes, and have them returned to the packing house as soon as full, 

 to avoid exposure to the sun. See that they are picked clean, and, if 

 the rows are wide and thick, place two pickers, one on each side. 

 See that the berries are picked, not pulled, from the stem and handled 

 carefully to avoid jamming. Pack in sixteen or twenty -four quart 

 crates, which can be procured, with boxes of the best white wood, 

 from Michigan for about twelve cents for the sixteen quarts and sev- 

 enteen cents for the twenty-four quarts. 



HILL CULTURE. 



For hill culture, which is essential to some of the large kinds, we 

 may use primary plants, which may be obtained from your plant beds 

 about the fifteenth of July or the first of August (which should be en- 

 tirely independent of your fruiting beds) by cutting away all the fruit 

 stems as soon as they appear in spring. Set these about sixteen inches 

 apart each way, and cultivate thoroughly not later than September 

 15th. Cut away all runners. Mulch after ground freezes, and leave 

 it where it lies in the spring, except to clean a small place over the 

 crown of each plant, and the result will often prove a pleasant and 

 profitable surprise to the grower. 



PROFIT. 



With a good location, suitable soil, thorough culture and intelligent 



