Marketing 



Strawberries 



BUYERS mVIN PIPER AND 

 KABL MEREEL 



"uhen the berries start coming in 

 the buyers are there" 



MANAGER HARRY DAY 



"orders come iri ht telephone. Ith- 

 gram and mail" 



V^' 



UR4^^B>>'^ T\o CHICAGO 

 B^ ^ hOU^S B^ J parii ana v 



"/A 





^«_ Harvesting and market- 



^^1 1 ■ ing the strawberry crop in 

 ^ / ^ Edgar county annually 



brings hundreds of people and a lot of 

 "new" money to Paris, the county seat. 

 Growers estimate that in a good year, 

 the strawberry crop is worth about 

 half as much as the corn crop in the 

 county. 



The preliminary steps in marketing 

 the crop are taken in the crude little 

 packing sheds on the farm. The shed 

 may be nothing more than a roof 

 mounted on posts and open on all sides. 

 Here you'll find anywhere from eight 

 or ten up to 25 people, mostly women, 

 checking in and paying the pickers, 

 "panning" the berries (dumping into 

 a flat funnel shaped tin to sort out the 

 green, soft, and rotten fruit), packing 

 them in quart boxes and nailing up 



•Continued from July issue 



Farmers Cooperate To 



Produce and Park Better 



Fruit and Sell To Best 



Advantage 



By George Thiem* 



the 24 box cases for delivery. 



Packing help costs from 20 to 25 

 cents an hour. The owner's wife, son, 

 or daughter is usually in the shed pay- 

 ing the pickers and helping pack. The 

 owner, himself, takes a turn at being 

 patch boss and supervising the packing 

 and shipping. He usually helps load 

 the filled cases on his truck and often 



delivers the load to the cooperative 

 sales shed in town. 



Expenses for marketing strawberries 

 run about as follows around Paris: 

 Picking labor 60 cents a case, cost of . 

 24 box crates 28 cents, packing labor 

 12 cents, Illinois Fruit Growers Ex- 

 change sales service 1 2 cents, local asso- 

 ciation two cents, total $1.14. Add to 

 this the cost of production which runs 

 at least 50 cents a case in a normal year 

 and you have a cost approximating 

 $1.64 a case of 24 quarts. These figures 

 are based on 1939 and may be consid- 

 ered conservative. Many growers will 

 tell you It costs up to 17-18 cents a 

 case to grade and pack the berries. Terry 

 Emrich, a grower said: "It costs about 

 $100 an acre to get em up, a dollar 

 a case to put em up and I4c to sell 

 em." 



AUGUST, 1939 



17 



