STRAWBERRIES 



Given by Charles W. Mann, Methuen at the Worcester 

 Meeting, Feb. 1916. 



Some two weeks ago our worthy Secretary invited me 

 t(< read a paper on Strawberries and if possible to have it 

 typewritten so that it could be read- — easily. I did not write 

 it. or typcAvrite it and all I can do today is to talk ; if you can 

 stand it, I can. 



I have an excuse for appearing without a paper and 1 

 brought it with me and will now show it to you in the shape 

 of three cartons of apples such as I have been packing from 

 50 to 100 per day for several weeks. If any of you are 

 handling apples this winter, you know just how happy I am, 

 for I picked 4000 barrels and am having a real good time 

 selling them in the dullest market known for many a year, 

 due partly to the foreign demand being 1,250,000 barrels 

 less than last year, but that perhaps Avill teach us the lesson 

 that our very best market for apples, as well as other fruit 

 and produce is the home market, beginning with the man 

 next door who does not grow his own and spreading out over 

 your own toAvn or city as far as we can conventiently cover 

 with a horse. Then with a motor truck we can take in 

 fifty miles more easily, and lastly, if we must ship by rail- 

 road or boat, do this only as a last resort, for good fruit, 

 well ripened, requires better handling than it receives at the 

 hands of the transportation companies. 



Now, these little cartons holding about a tenth of a 

 barrel, a little strong of a peck, have proved the means of 



