Harvesting 75 



growers fan them out before drying, but this has the dis- 

 advantage of bruising and crushing more berries. The 

 berries are usually allowed to stand in the field in boxes 

 for a time after gathering, and any insects which may 

 have fallen in are likely to crawl out and disappear. 



Growers who have had much experience say that a man 

 will average eight to ten bushels a day with the harvester, 

 although much more can be gathered in the best picking. 

 On one farm visited, two men and two girls had gathered 

 thirty-one bushels the day previous in ordinary picking, 

 and one of the men had been in the field but part of the 

 time. This shows- the first cost of gathering to be less than 

 half a cent per quart. Running them through the fanning 

 mill costs but a trifle. Before marketing they are picked 

 over by hand to remove stems, green berries and other 

 litter. This costs about one cent a pound, and is some- 

 times paid for by the pound at that rate. The whole 

 cost may not exceed one cent a quart, as against two 

 cents usually paid for hand-picking. There are those, 

 however, who think that in the end there is not much 

 difference in the expense, whether gathered with the 

 harvester or picked by hand. Growers who have had 

 experience with both methods express the opinion that 

 harvesting yields a better quality of dried fruit than hand- 

 picking, for the reason that, if picked by hand, they can- 

 not afford to look them over again after drying, and so 

 they do not go to market in as clean and nice condition as 

 those which come from the harvester. 



Some extensive and general fruit-growers find it in- 

 convenient to look over the dried product at the same time 

 that other fruits, which follow on after the raspberries, 



