74 BUSH-FRUITS 



will always be at the expense of vigor and future 

 productiveness. In fact, a plantation may be practi- 

 cally ruined by this first injudicious treatment. 



HARVESTING 



Gathering the fruit is one of the most troublesome 

 details connected with berry -growing of all kinds, and 

 the man who does not live close to a town where plenty 

 of pickers can be readily had is practically debarred 

 from entering any line of it where hand-picking must 

 be employed. Formerly it was the same, whether 

 growing the fruit to be sold fresh in the market, or 

 for drying. But the advent of the harvester has made 

 it possible to grow and evaporate raspberries without 

 the annoyance of assuming command of a small army 

 of pickers. This opens the way to any farmer, for 

 taking up this industry, no matter how remote his 

 farm may be from towns or railways, and it is in 

 this fact alone that the chief value of the method lies, 

 for many growers who are so situated that they can 

 easily get pickers in abundance still prefer to have the 

 fruit picked by hand. 



This harvester is a simple affair (Fig. 13, page 54), 

 consisting of a canvas tray some three feet square, there 

 being only enough wood about it to form a frame -work 

 and enable it to be moved about. Under the corner 

 which rests on the ground, there is a sort of shoe of 

 wood, enabling it to be slid along from bush to bush 

 easily. In one hand the operator carries a large wire 

 hook, with which the bushes are drawn over the canvas, 



