160 Strawberry-Growing 



gets hot. In hot weather, if it is necessary to choose be- 

 tween picking in the early morning while the berries are 

 still wet with dew or rain, and deferring picking so late 

 that some will be gathered in the heat of midday, pick 

 early. Some growers pick every day, regardless of dew 

 or rain ; the pickers are provided with oilcloth or rubber 

 capes. Those who sell a small quantity of fruit in a local 

 market can pick late in the afternoon, place the berries in 

 a cool shed overnight and market them the next morning. 



Care necessary in ■picking. 



The fruit is grasped by the stem, which is pinched 

 and broken off a short distance from the berry. The 

 jBngers need touch the berry very little, if at all. Watch 

 for the careless or fast picker, who snaps off the berry at 

 the calyx, leaving no stem; snapped berries may bleed 

 and do not carry well. Short stems husband the keep- 

 ing quality of the berries and prevent them from packing 

 down too tightly in the box. The stems should be of 

 uniform length. For long distance shipping, one-fourth 

 to one-half inch of stem is left ; for near markets, from 

 one inch to two inches. Pickers should gather all nub- 

 bins and over-ripe berries, which exhaust the plants. 

 Some provide the picker with a separate box for this 

 purpose. Until the introduction of the Wilson, most of 

 the strawberries brought to market were pulled, leaving 

 the hulls on the vines ; those that did not sepai-ate from 

 the calyx in picking were hulled before being sold. This 

 practice was introduced from England. It was soon 

 found that the labor of hulling was too great to make it 

 practicable and that hulled berries did not ship well. 

 Since 1860 strawberiies have been picked and marketed 

 with hulls on. 



