350 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ing the location of ground for fruit growing. Fruit farms located along 

 the line of the Great Northern between Excelsior and Hutchinson are 

 practically as near the Twin Cities as if they were located within 5 or 8 

 miles of these cities and were obliged to transport the products of their 

 gardens and vineyards by wagons; besides the jolting by wagon carriage 

 is much more damaging to fruit than that by railroad transportation. 

 Another important item to be considered is the comparative cheapness 

 of the land in this section of country. Fresh virgin soil, either cleared 

 and under cultivation, or still covered by primeval forest, can be pur- 

 chased for from $25 to $40 per acre. Twenty acres of choice land 

 devoted to small fruits would furnish at least three active men with 

 plenty of employment all the season round, and in the berry season 

 would furnish work for twenty or more girls in addition; and such a 

 farm, requiring but a small outlay at the beginning, would in a few 

 years yield a better income than any farm of 160 acres devoted to the 

 usual farm crops of grain and vegetables. It seems to me that in this 

 direction is to be found the most enjoyable prosperity and financial suc- 

 cess for any young man of enterprise who is a lover of the soil and the 

 exhilaration of outdoor work. How much better for a young man with 

 wife and children to live in the country, a little removed from the tur- 

 moil of the city, amid trees and fresh fields, growing crops and blooming 

 gardens; and. especially, better for children to be familiar with nature 

 and under its divine influences! 



PICKING BERRIES, ETC.— A TALK. 



M. A. THAYEK, SPARTA, WIS. 



I have never had any experience with apples. My experience has been 

 with small fruits, entirely. I could give you a minute description of my 

 methods of picking and .shipping berries, if it is not out of order at this 

 time. 



President Underwood: I am sure there is nobody here who can tell us 

 about that better than you can. We shall not have you here with us 

 during the entire session, so we want you to go ahead and give us the 

 beneflt of your experience. 



Mr. Thayer: In the handling of berries, I adopt as thorough and sys- 

 tematic discipline as I would with a young army, were 1 commander. My 

 pickers, as they apply for positions, are required to sign an application. 

 That application, if accepted, is numbered and filed away. The pickers 

 are known during the season by their numbers. I have them supplied with 

 a case, the tin case that I exhibited at the meeting last year, with a cross- 

 bar on the bottom, in which the new boxes are placed for picking. It 

 shuts up with a little funnel at the top. They start out with a tray con- 

 taining six boxes, and they have also one in a tin case. They march out 

 by twos, and as they come to the rows number forty-six, for instance, 

 may take the right row and number eighty, perhaps, the left. As the 

 boxes are filled, they are removed from the tin case and placed in the tray, 

 and when the tray is full then the number is called. These trays are 

 taken to the packing room and examined, and, if satisfactory, new boxes 

 are supplied and the picker given credit for the amount already gathered. 



