SMALL FRUITS. 305 
PREPARING GROUND. 
Thoroughly cultivate in corn or root crop for at least one year; then 
plow deep and use sub-soiler if you can. 
PLANTING. 
Plant with team,plow and an extra man. Set stakes eight feet from the 
_ Side of the plantation and then run a furrow perfectly straight, and, if 
planting Turners, set the next row four to four and one-half feet from the 
first,and furrow out uniformly until within eight feet of the opposite side of 
the piece to be planted. Next take stakes and a strong cord, and set the 
stakes eight feet from the end of the plantation, and set with plants al- 
ready heeled in at the side of the plantation. The two men will make 
short work of planting one,twoor fiveacres. Thesecond row is planted the 
same distance from the first as the furrows are from each other. Of course, 
you will plant in the open furrow, and by planting two plants to the hill, 
you will be surer of a complete success. If planting Cuthberts or 
black caps, line out from five to six feet, and stop when you get within 
eight feet of the opposite end of the plantation. With this method you 
have an eight foot street on all four sides, on which to turn or drive 
around the piece. 
CULTIVATION. 
Cultivate with a horse and corn plow the same as corn, and continue up 
to near picking time; also in the fall, keeping the ground free from 
weeds and suckers. 
PRUNING. 
Pruning a new plantation: Pinch when canes are from twelve to eigh- 
teen inches high—old plantations from two to three feet high. To re- 
move old canes, suckers, etc., use a straight-bladed corn knife with the 
blade shortened about one-third, and by selecting from tour to six canes 
and putting them to one side all the old bush and surplus canes can be 
cut away by one or twostrokes. A good man will clean out an acre daily. 
PICKING. 
Each picker is furnished with a crate, and when filled it ismarked and 
stored in the fruit house and another taken; and at the time of shipping 
or at the close of the day’s work, each picker is to identify his crates, and 
settlements are made each day in cash. With our method we inspect 
each picker’s work at every time of settlement, and in that way know the 
quality and amount of the work done by each; and in all cases when the 
work is not satisfactory or the amount not up to the average, we notify the 
picker to improve, and if he does not do it we dismiss him. With our 
method settlements are made with 30 or 40 pickers in a very few minutes. 
MARKETING. 
We pick each plantation three times a week, and with care that no 
ripe fruit is left on the bushes, and in that way we avoid the too common 
mistakes of having over-ripe fruit mixed with fresh fruit,and spoiling the 
whole. All raspberries are picked and marketed by us in pint boxes—not 
picked into quart boxes and then turned into pints, as this crushes the 
fruit more or less. We have shipped to the trade direct and also to all 
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