166 SUCCESSFUL FKUIT CULTURE 



brought from the cold storage, yet if properly exposed 

 to cool, dry air for a little time after being taken from 

 cold storage they will not be injured by this treatment. 



Package — The quart basket is almost universally 

 used, packed in a bushel (thirty-two-quart), twenty- 

 four-quart, and sixteen-quart crate or carrier. Most of 

 the thirty-two-quart crates are now considered as gift 

 l^ackages, and are not returned to the shipper, but are 

 sold to local growers near the markets for ten cents 

 each. If the grower delivers his fruit to the retailer 

 he may have his crates reserved, and thus only a small 

 number will be needed to market a large crop of berries. 

 One of the best packages for carrying and displaying 

 the fruit is the "Marshall" carrier. Figure 89, in which 

 twenty-four quarts of berries are packed, and it has the 

 advantage that all of the fruit is exposed to the view 

 of the purchaser without removing any partitions, and 

 if well put up will attract customers by the large amount 

 of fruit exposed in one mass. This figure shows thirty 

 quarts, with only from eight to fifteen berries in a 

 ^Dasket. Soiled baskets should never be used, as the 

 fruit shows to better advantage -in new baskets, and 

 the new ones are as cheap as old baskets collected from 

 the consumers. 



Picking — This is one of the greatest problems of 

 the strawberry grower. Some employ boys, some men 

 and some women. The first are the most difficult to 

 manage, and do the work in the most uncertain way. 

 Girls and women do their work well, are easily managed, 

 but are rather slow in many cases. Quick, active young 

 men make good pickers ; the cost per quart, however, is 

 much greater, but they can often be brought into the 

 field in times of an emergency when other help is not 

 available. Numerous methods of recording the number 

 of boxes picked by the different pickers have been de- 

 vised, perhaps one of the best of which is the card system, 



