BrussELts Sprouts 1455 
berry baskets, the looser heads going into the bottom, and the 
smooth, firm ones on top, allowing a crown of an inch or two above 
the rim of the box. Little attempt is made at sizing, but occa- 
sionally the small hard sprouts are packed by themselves. 
In the earlier part of the season, when the sprouts run larger 
and with fewer culls, the common price paid for picking and pack- 
ing is two cents a quart; and at that rate a man working an eve- 
ning from 5:30 to 11:00 can sometimes make $1.25. If the 
sprouts were poor he could not make over two-thirds of this 
amount. In the winter the pickers often insist on being paid by 
the day, the common rate being one dollar, but a good picker can 
usually do better at piece-work, for he can average two bushels or 
sixty-four quarts a day. 
When the boxes are packed they are set in 32-, 48-, or 60-quart 
crates for shipment, the second size being the favorite for all but 
the earliest sprouts, which seem to sell a little better in the small- 
est package. The 60-quart package is a little too large for market 
requirements, moving a little slowly, and is now almost entirely 
abandoned for the 48-quart, on which the express charge is rela- 
tively less than on the 32-quart crate. 
Sprouts are picked all winter, the very last of them going to 
market as late as April first; but nearly everything has commonly 
gone by March first. Mr. L. H. Hallock has tried freezing sprouts 
by embedding them in cracked ice, in order to hold them for the 
spring market, but found it impracticable to keep them frozen in 
an ordinary icehouse. With mechanical refrigeration the matter 
would be simpler, and doubtless will soon be employed. The 
frozen sprouts come out in excellent condition when thawed 
gradually. 
YIELDS, PRICES AND PROFITS 
Two thousand quarts per acre is considered a fair yield for late 
sprouts, used as a succession crop, but the best growers will not 
infrequently harvest as many as 2,500. In the case of early 
sprouts, when the land has been saved for them and part of the 
crop harvested in the field, 4,000 quarts can be picked, but this is 
more than ordinary. Even as high as 5,500 quarts have been 
raised on an acre. 
