162 ABC OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 



STRAWBERRY TIME | GETTING RID OF THE CROP WHEN THERE 



IS A GLUT IN THE MARKET. 

 From Gleanings in Bee Culture, July i, 1892. 



The latter part of June is generally the height of the straw- 

 berry season in our locality. Mrs. Root has several times wor- 

 ried about strawberry time, for she said it would make us so 

 much business that I would overwork again. It is not only the 

 pickers that have to be looked after, but the folks who do the 

 selling ; and as we have a larger area of strawberries than ever 

 before, it looked quite likely that there would be difficulty in 

 selling the whole product. Of course, we might ship them off; 

 but my experience has been so unsatisfactory in shipping straw- 

 berries that I have decided to sell what we can at home, and let 

 the rest go. To-day, June 22, 1892, we are right in the midst 

 of the battle. The town is full of berries, and loads are com- 

 ing in from every direction ; and the report comes, that, even 

 though they offer them at 5 cts. by the bushel, they do not sell. 

 I knew by past experience just what was needed more energy 

 and care all around. Of course, we have been having exces- 

 sive rains, and many kinds of berries are soft. The pickers, 

 too, where they pick by the quart, get eager to fill the boxes, 

 and quite a few that are soft on one side, and sometimes rotten, 

 get in. I went down among them myself, and told them that 

 we could not sell our berries unless they were more careful. 

 Sometimes, through false economy, they picked berries too 

 small to be of any account ; and every little while some new 

 hand would be getting them before they were fully ripe. A lit- 

 tle kind exhortation made quite a difference in the looks of the 

 products. Then the market was watched, just as we watched 

 the barometer. By ten or eleven o'clock, if sales were drop- 

 ping, pickers were stopped, each one being directed to make a 

 mark in his row just where he left off, so he could find it when 

 he commenced again. As they began work at five in the morn- 

 ing, and sometimes earlier, they did not much mind resting 

 from ten till two or three. If the folks on the wagon sold out 

 sooner, of course we started to pick earlier ; and when sales 

 were so close on the heels of the pickers that they had to wait 

 for berries, there is quite an advantage in being able to tell pur- 

 chasers, "There, these berries have not been off the vines an 

 hour." If any stock began to get poor or old, the directions 

 were to let it slide for any decent offer. They were also direct- 

 ed to keep the berries out of the sun. For several days I have 



