177 



away and bring home all the school girls and boys that we 

 could carry, I can see a man in the audience, whose wife, 

 then a school girl, has picked lots of berries for me. Now 

 we have to rely on Italian pickers. We had always man- 

 aged to get them picked for 1 1-2 cents. This last summer 

 we started in for two, but had an Italian strike, and had to 

 do what the rest did before we got through, — 2 1-2 cents. 

 They were high enough last year to warrant the extra ex- 

 pense. 



Our berries have always been marketed in Boston, 

 sending to the commission men. Now, I know there is a 

 good deal of talk about marketing the products direct from 

 the farm, but I believe that the retail matter of marketing 

 farm products is another business, just as much as in manu- 

 facturing it is a separate business to distribute the goods. 

 Manufacturers rely on a distributing agent. I have had very 

 good success and ])een well satisfied with the consignment of 

 my berries to a commission man. We have shipped for sev- 

 eral years to the same firm, and the results have been very 

 satisfactory. They are picked in the morning as soon as they 

 are dry, and then taken by auto truck at night and landed in 

 T'Os^ton as soon as the stalls are open in the morning, — any- 

 where from two o'clock to five. 



The cost of raising the berries is one of the important 

 and interesting items. I think, for a term of years, we have 

 never got the top prices, but it is safe to say that our berries 

 have averaged 10 cents a pint. Last year we had berries 

 sell for 16 and 17 cents a pint by the commission men. but 

 that is too high. I believe it is detrimental to the raspberry 

 grower to have his berries sell as high as that. Our President 

 referred to not expecting to get too miuch for our apples. I 

 believe there is danger that the farmer is liable to be as bad 

 as the other fellow; he wants to get all there is in it. There 

 is a point to which you can force prices that cuts down the 

 consumption, and will injure a man in the business. The ex- 

 pense of rai!^,ing the berries we have figured through a term 

 of years at about two cents a pint. That includes all the 



