No. 4.] FRUITS FOR LOCAL MARKETS. 57 



receptacle. Did you ever buy any strawberries of the gro- 

 cer, or the Italian, or the peddler on the street, and notice 

 that, just before showing them to the lady, he turns them 

 upside down, emptying them into another basket, so that 

 what the lady sees comes from the bottom of the basket away 

 from the air, and not the top where they are wilted and 

 faded ? After being picked twenty-four hours, the only really 

 bright-colored berries are the ones at the bottom, where no 

 air gets at them. The less ventilation we give the basket or 

 crate, the better, though many a man feels otherwise. Many 

 a man I know has built a little packing shed at the top of a 

 hill and roofed it over, with a table inside. He says, "Isn't 

 this a glorious place, — a breeze blowing through all the 

 time." Yes ; and ruining the strawberries. Of course if 

 they get wet you must put them somewhere to get the mois- 

 ture and heat out of them ; but if they can be picked cool 

 and dry, put them in an absolutely tight basket ; and if they 

 cannot, put them somewhere to cool at once, and then put 

 them in the tight package as soon after as possible. The 

 tighter and closer a package, the finer the berries will be 

 when put on to the market. That hits the present straw- 

 berry boxes and present crate ; but I am talking about the 

 fellow who is after the best market the world has. The last 

 few cents on top is where all your profit is coming from, and 

 everything that will help to put that cent there is what is 

 wanted. It is looking after the little last thing that paj^s. 



Now, to branch ofi' a bit, — in knocking about the country, 

 as I have to do in my business, I stop at hotels and dine on 

 dining cars, and eat on the run here and there, everywhere ; 

 and I visit my city cousins occasionally, — they sponge on us 

 in the summer, and we have to get back on them, — and I 

 hear everybody telling there is no more sweet corn. " Why, 

 when I was a boy we used to have sweet corn, but now they 

 don't grow any more, — they grow white varieties now ; we 

 would buy (|uantities of sweet corn if we could only get it 

 anywhere." The farmer grows just as good sweet corn as 

 he ever did ; but the fellows talking live in the city, and 

 they, as well as the men dining on the dining car or at the 

 hotel, have to take corn that was picked yesterday morning, 



