When Fruit is Fit to Pick. 379 



the consumer direct, then he can hope to retain 

 this market only by sending in the products in the 

 very finest dessert condition. Such consumers are 

 generally willing to pay a sufficient extra price 

 for the advantage of having the fruit taken from 

 the plant when it is in its highest state of edible 

 quality. Most serious mistakes are constantly made 

 in the picking of blackberries, for example. It is 

 ordinarily considered that when the berries are 

 black they are ripe, but such is not the case. 

 They are fully ripe only when they shake from the 

 bushes readily, and when they are soft and free 

 from sharp acidity. In this condition blackberries 

 can be handled direct to the consumers in the 

 local market which is only a few miles away ; but 

 they could not be shipped by rail. The strawberry 

 is ordinarily picked for market when only a portion 

 of the berry is really ripe, and when the organic 

 acids are still too sharp and ' austere for the des- 

 sert. A strawberry which has a green or white tip 

 is not yet in fit condition to pick, if one is ex- 

 pecting to reach a really good market. 



With the tree -fruits, it may be said that in 

 general the samples keep longest when they are 

 picked greenest, but they suffer thereby in point of 

 quality. There are no well-marked lines between 

 greenness or immaturity, ripeness or full maturity, 

 and over maturity and decay. The one stage passes 

 into the other insensibly, and it is a part of the 

 normal chemical history of the fruit that it should 

 begin an incipient breaking down and disorganize- 



