When Fruit is Fit to Pick. 379 
the consumer direct, then he can hope to retain 
this market only by sending in the products in the 
very finest dessert condition. Such consumers are 
generally willing to pay a sufficient extra price 
for the advantage of having the fruit taken from 
the plant when it is in its highest state of edible 
quality. Most serious mistakes are constantly made 
in the picking of blackberries, for example. It is 
ordinarily considered that when the berries are 
black they are ripe, but such is not the case. 
They are fully ripe only when they shake from the 
bushes readily, and when they are soft and free 
from sharp acidity. In this condition blackberries 
can be handled direct to the consumers in the 
local market which is only a few miles away; but 
they could not be shipped by rail. The strawberry 
is ordinarily picked for market when only a portion 
of the berry is really ripe, and when the organic 
acids are still too sharp and austere for the des- 
sert. A strawberry which has a green or white tip 
is not yet in fit condition to pick, if one is ex- 
pecting to reach a really good market. 
With the tree-fruits, it may be said that in 
general the samples keep longest when they are 
picked greenest, but they suffer thereby in point of 
quality. There are no well-marked lines between 
greenness or immaturity, ripeness or full maturity, 
and over maturity and decay. The one stage passes 
into the other insensibly, and it is a part of the 
normal chemical history of the fruit that it should 
-begin an incipient breaking down and disorganiza- 
