54 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. 



however, whether the use of Climax baskets in 5 or 

 even 8-lb. sizes would not please many customers. 

 The fact is that the best buyers of sour cherries want 

 them for canning or preserving", not for immediate 

 use as dessert. Such customers always want as 

 much as five or -eight pounds, and for them the Cli- 

 max basket would be handier and more attractive 

 than the quart strawberry cup. If the time ever 

 comes when the supply catches up with the demand, 

 as nearly as it has in the marketing of apples, for 

 instance, we shall surely see larger packages used 

 for sour cherries. 



Strawberries 



Whenever I see a great public economist (general 

 manager to the government by his own appointment) 

 telling how to regulate the trusts, how to handle the 

 national currency, how to control all transportation 

 matters, and how to reform things generally, I 

 always think what fun it would be to see him trying 

 to run a gang of strawberry pickers. In many ways 

 it is harder to handle a large crop of strawberries 

 than it is to run the government At any rate I am 

 convinced that some of the men who are in the 

 strawberry business are smarter than some of the 

 men who are in Congress. 



One of the most serious problems in the straw- 

 berry business is that of securing a suitable force of 

 pickers. In the southern states growers naturally 

 depend largely on negro labor. In the northern 

 states women and children are looked to for the 

 principal help. Near factory towns such help is 

 usually most abundant, and such places are often 

 chosen on that account for commercial strawberry 

 growing. In some places Italian pickers are used; 

 in other places colonies of Polanders serve the end; 



