PICKING STRAWBERRIES. 279 



or when the ground ceases to freeze nights, the mulch should 

 be removed, and the plants found between the rows should be 

 carefully taken up with a fork, making a path about a foot wide. 

 As the weeds make their appearance they should be pulled up 

 by hand or removed with a garden-trowel. All that now re- 

 mains to be done before the picking is to " straw them down," 

 as it is termed. This consists simply in covering the paths with 

 straw or old hay and carefully putting it under the fruit-stalks 

 which incline towards the paths. While the object of this is to 

 prevent the fruit from being gritty, by coming in contact with 

 the ground, it at the same time makes a clean and agreeable 

 path for the pickers. The picking season usually commences 

 about the 12th of June and continues, on an average, seventeen 

 days. The practice of hulling strawberries before they are sent 

 to the market we are glad to know is being rapidly abandoned. 

 Although the demand for hulled fruit is still considerable with 

 a certain class of consumers, yet the fact is fast gaining ground 

 that such fruit must be of inferior quality when compared with 

 that which is packed with the hulls on. 



Strawberry-picking usually occurs when the weather is hot ; 

 and if the fruit is not picked until it is fully ripe, (and it cer- 

 tainly should not be,) and the hull is then removed, the pulp is 

 more or less mangled, and decomposition ensues ; and by the 

 time it reaches the consumer it is very evident that it is neither 

 fresh nor wholesome, its general appearance to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



It will undoubtedly be expected that I should here name the 

 varieties that I deem most profitable for general cultivation. 

 There are several reasons why I do not feel inclined to offer 

 advice on this point. One is, varieties which do well in certain 

 localities are almost worthless in others. And I could not my- 

 self be induced, by the recommendation of any fruit-grower in 

 the country, to set an acre or a half-acre of any untried variety. 



The humbugs of the day are not all confined to the vendors 

 of patent medicines or patent fertilizers. It should be borne in 

 mind that strawberry plants, like Finder's razors, are made to 

 sell. How willingly, or rather how eagerly, do the public buy ! 

 The Scarlet Magnate, the Triomph DeGand and Agriculturist 

 were each in their turn recommended to the public as possess- 

 ing in an eminent degree all the qualities desirable in a straw- 



