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BIGGLE GARDEN BOOK 



market, try to pick in the evening or in the morning 

 after the dew is off the grass and yet before it is too 

 warm. If picking must be done all through the heat 

 of the day, plan some way to cool the berries. Pick- 

 ers of mature years are best ; and as a rule girls are 

 better than boys. Have a superintendent for every 

 ten or twelve pickers, to assign the rows, inspect the 

 picking, etc. Each picker should be numbered and 

 have a picking stand or carrier with like number 

 to hold four, six or eight quarts. Sort the berries 

 as picked into two grades, and always use new, clean 

 baskets made of the whitest wood possible. Fill 

 rounding full with fruit of uniform quality all the 

 way through. After berries are picked keep away 

 from the air as much as possible. Fruit, if dry 

 cooled, will keep much longer and keep fresher if 

 kept in tight crates. Ventilation in crates and bas- 

 kets does more harm than good." In many parts of 

 the East the 32-quart crate is the favorite shipping 

 package ; in Michigan and some other states, the 16- 

 quart gift-crate is popular (this kind is shown in the 

 packing-shed illustration in this chapter). 



Strawberry pests : Leaf-spot, blight, rust and 

 mildew can all be largely controlled by early spray- 

 ings with the Bordeaux mixture. Rotation of crops 

 and the annual ''burning over" of each bed after it 

 has fruited, will usually control the crown-borer, the 

 leaf-roller, and similar insects ; also, put some arsen- 

 ate of lead in the Bordeaux mixture and use the 

 combined spray until little green berries begin to 

 form, then stop, and resume spraying after the fruit- 

 ing season is over. White grubs (larvae of May 

 beetles or "June bugs" as they are sometimes called) 

 often attack the roots below ground and the plant 

 withers and dies ; there are no good remedies, but 



