66 THE BOOK OF MARKET GARDENING 



condition, none is more difficult to deal with satis- 

 factorily than the Strawberry, for besides being fully 

 developed, it must have the best colour possible, which 

 it may only attain a short time before it is dead ripe. 

 While it is extremely undesirable that the fruits should 

 be gathered when hard, green, or white, with a 

 minimum of colour, it is on the whole safer to take 

 them under-ripe than err in the other direction. They 

 need to be sufficiently firm to travel safely, yet should 

 appear in the market in their most tempting guise for 

 the purchaser, and that is where the inexperienced or 

 careless producer often fails. Some varieties are much 

 more easily dealt with in this respect than others, 

 notably the well-known Sir Joseph Paxton, which 

 possesses an important character of a market-man's 

 Strawberry in its firmness of flesh, and the fruit can in 

 consequence be gathered with safety in a much later 

 stage than the soft-fleshed varieties, admirable though 

 they be in other ways. 



These remarks particularly apply to fruits intended 

 for consumption in a fresh state, and some modification 

 is needed where the Strawberries are to be converted into 

 jam. It is then advisable to be able to gather as large a 

 quantity as possible at a time, therefore they are taken 

 when the bulk is in the best condition, which is after the 

 earliest and finest fruits have been consigned to market. 

 For the best quality preserves it is quite as undesirable 

 to have the fruit in an over-ripe and smashed state as it 

 is to have it hard and unripe, that is, where " whole 

 fruit " jam is the speciality. If it is all to be pulped, 

 inequality in the ripening is of little moment, provided 

 the majority of the fruits are ripe and of good colour. 



Similar methods are adopted with Raspberries, which 

 form another very critical soft fruit crop to gather in 

 the best condition. If it is desirable to gather Straw- 

 berries in a dry state, it is absolutely essential to secure 



