A B C OF STRAWBERRY CULTURE. 171 



ugent has a clock worth about 50 cts., and, as a matter of course, 

 he had to keep sun time. Every time a passenger wants to 

 know when the train leaves, he ciphers the difference out be- 

 tween sun time and standard time, and he generally makes a 

 mistake, just as he did in my case. Never mind. I went back 

 and finished my strawberries and visit. Then I rode 16 miles 

 up and down some pretty hard sand-hills a part of the way, in 

 just 96 minutes. I found the boys had "picked the berries ex- 

 cept those up by the windmill (see picture in Appendix to our 

 book "What to Do and How to be Happy while Doing It,") 

 which needed picking more than all the rest. They picked 

 11 y 2 bushels, and sold them, so they did pretty well ; and as 

 they did not see any thing of the boss at the time he agreed to 

 come, they went home tired, and concluded that those great 

 big berries on the clover sod, a la Terry, would have to stand it 

 till Monday. So much for having a clock run by sun time. 



Later. June 23, while trying to ride uphill in the sand, I 

 passed a buggy, and thought the faces looked familiar. It 

 was friend Pierce and his wife. After a little talk I said : 



" How much did you get for those strawberries that yu 

 left on the vines until the next Monday ? " 



" Oh ! I got 10 cts. for those I got into the market Monday 

 forenoon ; but some of them that the boys took in Monday 

 night brought only 6. I suppose they were pretty soft in con- 

 sequence of being overripe." 



There you see it, friends. Had the strawberries been pick- 

 ed Saturday afternoon, and rushed into the market Saturday 

 evening, they would have brought almost twice as much money 

 as they did Monday afternoon, when they were overripe and 

 everybody else was pushing them into the market. A little 

 later, on the same morning, I saw a large crop of peas, just 

 right to pick, between the rows of celery, at friend Atwood's 

 celery farm, near Copley. He said he could not get around to 

 it to market them that day, because it was Saturday, and he 

 guessed they would have to wait till Monday, even if some of 

 them were a little past their prime. 



Moral. When you strive with all your might, and leave 

 no stone unturned to get a fine crop of any thing in advance of 

 the market, do not let your enthusiasm ooze out at the last mo- 

 ment, when the most critical time of all comes to turn your 

 product into cash. 



