PICKING STRAWBERRIES 



I'' HE strawberry picking season will soon 

 be here. The illustration on this page 

 shows a portion of an 1 1 acre patch of Straw- 

 berries on thr fruit farm of Mr. J. O. Duke, 

 of Olinda, Ont., with the pickers at work. 

 " I employed 25 to 40 pickers each day," 

 writes Mr, Duke to The Horticulturist. 

 " They were j^laced under a foreman, who 

 saw that the berries were picked right and 

 that the rows were picked clean, each picker 

 Jiaving a row to herself, which was thor- 

 oughly done l)efore another was given. The 

 rows were numbered, and as each row was 

 taken the number was placed in a 'book oppo- 

 site the name of tne picker. 



" 1 fin.d this method a great advantage to 

 keep the pickers on their own rows. There 

 are always some pickers who, if not 

 watched, will run all over the patch. Each 

 picker is provided with a carrier holding six 

 (|uart boxes, and is instructed to pick into 

 all the six at once and not to fill one box at 

 a time, to be careful not to have any holes 

 in their baskets, and that the berries 'must be 

 put in carefully and compactly. 



" The fruit is packed in crates holding 24 

 quart Idoxcs for shipping. I pay two cents 

 a box. I grow the earliest ripening varie- 



ties and find Mitchell's Early. Bedar Wood 

 and Crescent about the 'best. They don't 

 grow heavy crops of fruit, but catch the 

 early market. For a late berry Williams is 

 hard to beat, being very firm and very pro- 

 ductive, though late. Being one of the first 

 growers in Canada each season to pick ber- 

 ries I always find a market at satisfactory 

 prices to the east and north." 



Pine Twigs For Currant Worms 



THE use of pine twigs to keep off the 

 worm from currant and goosel>erry 

 bushes is recommended by Mr. T. R. Pat- 

 tillo, of Bridgewater, N. S. 



" Some years ago," he writes, " I read an 

 article bearing on the subject from the pen 

 of a lady amateur gardener who had suc- 

 cessfully used them and was anxious others 

 should know of it. I put it into practice, 

 with the result that I have had no trouble 

 with the pests for the past seven years. 

 There is no skill required, but the twigs 

 must be used in time. 



" W'hen the bushes begin to bloom I hie 

 to the woods for my supply, getting them 

 from one foot to three feet long, and plac- 

 insr them in and out through the bushes, let- 



Strawberry Pickers at Work for Mr. J. 0. Duke, of Olinda. 



