Notes and Gleanings. 109 



bushels, of strawberries each ; making, at this time, a thousand bushels daily. 

 These do not all go from Jonesborough ; for South Pass and Mallaud are the two 

 largest points of shipment. 



The strawberry season lasts from three to four weeks, and is followed by the 

 raspberry, Early- May cherry, and the blackberry ; these, in turn, by early apples 

 and potatoes. If you will look over the map, you will see that this fruit-train 

 passes over three hundred miles of latitude : hence you see, that, in a few days, 

 the cargo here will be an assorted one. Now it is almost exclusively of 

 the strawberry, with perhaps a few baskets of the gooseberry and the more early 

 cherries. As the season of ripening fruits makes its march northward, new 

 stations add to the freight ; while the later fruits fill up the places left vacant by 

 those passing out of season. At Chicago, the strawberry is not in full bloom; 

 while at this point they are half grown, and the raspberry is just beginning to 

 open. By next week the train will contain more cars, and the freights will be 

 fully assorted. 



Chicago will raise strawberries until August, when the peach, apple, and 

 pear will supply its place. 



Alton has its fruit-train also, or rather will have it in a few days. Besides 

 these trains, the express-companies carry a large amount of fruit. But this is not 

 all ; for, at all the landings on the Mississippi River, the steamboats do a large 

 business. The result is, that the dwellers in the great lumber-forests of the Lake 

 region, and the miners of copper, of iron, and of lead, can have these luxuries 

 at a reasonable price. 



The Wilson is the only market-berry, and, if properly picked, will keep nearly 

 a week. In picking, two points are observed : First, To retain a part of the stem 

 with the head : this is done by the picker nipping off the stem with the thumb 

 and second finger-nail. Without this precaution, the fruit will begin to decay in 

 a day or two. When the weather is hot, and the fruit has a long distance to go, 

 it must be picked over to see that none is sent on which the stem is not retained. 

 Second, To pick the berries that are jusf red, but not too deeply colored. 



The box used for shipping holds a quart, dry measure ; and is called the 

 " Halleck Box," but is a different thing from the old Halleck Patent. Three 

 forms of the box are made, but all of them so near the same thing, that there is 

 no real practical difference. All claim to be patented ; but it is not probable that 

 any of the patents would be found very valuable in law, and it is probable that 

 fruit-boxes will hereafter be sold at a reasonable price. They now cost, for the 

 material ready to be put together, eight dollars per thousand. The boxes are 

 square in form, and are put in crates of twenty-four or thirty-six quarts : the 

 former is the best size to handle. The material for these crates costs, for twenty- 

 four quarts, about fifteen cents ; freight, nails, and making, five cents. One boy 

 will put up about four hundred boxes in a day. They are put together with two- 

 and-a-half-ounce tacks made of soft iron, so that they will clinch as they are 

 driven through the thin stuff on an iron anvil of peculiar construction made for the 

 purpose. Cherries and other small fruits are also shipped in these boxes and 

 crates, with the exception of gooseberries, currants, and grapes. The two former 

 go in barrels, and the latter in shallow boxes holding some seven pounds each. 



