FOURTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 2 1 1 



average, so we got a fair profit and that seemed almost impos- 

 sible in the spring. I beHeve I have never had a season that 

 I did not get some profit from my strawberries. 



As regards crates and baskets. The baskets we buy early 

 in the season. This season we bought in December and have 

 them in our buildings now, ready to use as soon as the crop 

 is ready. The crates we buy of the market men in the fall 

 and winter in our local market, and when we are shipping to 

 Boston, our agents there buy for us and ship them to us. We 

 used to get them as "returning empties," but the railroad 

 company is pleading poverty and we have to contribute to 

 their needs by paying freight. 



I am aware the subject is the successful culture of fruit 

 and vegetables, but I do not see how you know you have been 

 successful until you have heard from the marketing end. 

 There have been many changes in the marketing since I have 

 been in the business. We used to get all our crates and 

 baskets back, and if the commission men failed to return 

 them they had to pay for them. The crates alwa)s came back 

 free. That was the time when the railroads were liberal and 

 had plenty of money. I hope we have got to the limit in 

 giving baskets, crates, etc. ; in fact, I do not know as there is 

 anything left to give unless they take the holders the pickers 

 use. We do not sort our berries, i. e., we do not dump the 

 baskets, but depend on our pickers to do their work honestly. 

 Some pickers will pick better than others anyway, and some 

 rows have better berries than others, so in that way we sort 

 our berries and we aim to have the whole crate as good as 

 the top layer. We have tried dumping them and found it 

 injured the berries, and our agents have complained that the 

 berries were soft and the baskets were not full. We have 

 come to the conclusion that it pays to put men on the bed to 

 watch the pickers. Berries that are picked right will carry 

 right. The prices are not as large as 25 or 30 years ago. 

 Then 25 and 30 cents was often a ruling price, and I have sold 

 them for 50 cents per quart, but we get nearly three times 

 as many berries to the acre as we used to in those times. In 

 the labor of picking we pay the same as 30 years ago, two 



