FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 209 



The greatest bearers are generally pistilate varieties and 

 we pick out the strongest staminate varieties to set with them. 

 We set four rows of the pistilate to one of the staminate, 

 having two varieties that blossom nearly at the same time. 

 We set earl\- in Spring. Our planting is nearly all done in 

 April, and we have set sometimes in March. We think the 

 earlier they are set the better they do, for if they get a good 

 start ill the Spring, it helps to carry them through the dry 

 weather we sometimes have in June. We believe in narrow 

 matted rows. It gives the pickers more room and gives us bet- 

 ter and fimier berries. There is one thing that I have passed, 

 and that is the covering of beds in late fall. We use the sedge 

 and salt hay that we have quite convenient. It pays to cover 

 them well, especially in exposed places. In the Spring we take 

 off the covering and stack it in small stacks around the beds and 

 then put the cultivators going. We hoe and cultivate until 

 the buds begin to show and then we put back the covering we 

 took oft" between the rows, and it keeps the ground from get- 

 ting dry and keeps the berries clean. We sometimes take off 

 half the covering and the rest shaken all over the field and then 

 set fire to it. I have said sometimes I would never burn 

 another bed, as two or three weeks after burning there is 

 very little sign of life, while those that were not burned were 

 growing nicely; but when we came to pick the fruit the yield 

 was nearly double on the field that was burned, and the fruit 

 was better. I changed my mind then and said I would burn 

 every bed I had the next season. What we burn foi- is to keep 

 down tlie rust. If you do burn over your beds, burn them 

 early. 



Now, as regards picking and marketing. We contract 

 with our pickers to pay them two cents per quart to those 

 that pick the entire season, and those that pick part of the 

 time one cent and a half per quart. Each picker has a num- 

 ber and that is what he or she goes by, and what they pick is 

 credited to their number. We have one pay day after all are 

 picked. Our principal market is Boston, but we keep one 

 team and sometimes two in Xew Haven every day during 

 the busv season. 



