PREPARATIO]^ POK GATHERIis"a FRUIT. 265 



age. Competition has become so great within the past 

 ten years, that the cultivators of berries are compelled to 

 exercise more care than formerly in selecting both fruit 

 and packages, as buyers are now more critical and par- 

 ticular as they gain experience. The old trays, each hold- 

 ing several quarts of berries, and from Avhich the fruit 

 was measured out to customers, are no longer seen in 

 our markets, except for some hard kinds like the Huckle- 

 berry, and even for these this dishing-out system is very 

 objectionable, to say the least. Of late years large quan- 

 tities of the small fruits come to our northern markets 

 from the South. This is especially the case with Straw- 

 berries, for increased facilities in the way of rapid transit 

 by steamboats and railroads, with refrigerators on both, 

 have now made the shipping of perishable fruits possible 

 when it would not have been thought of a score of years 

 ago. The trade in such articles will no doubt increase in 

 years to come, and growers will need new styles of baskets 

 and crates, or those better adapted to the purpose than 

 any now in common use. But whatever kind of pack- 

 age is used, the grower will ever need to exercise great 

 care in gathering and assorting his fruit. If his pickers 

 are not instructed in regard to picking the berries in the 

 best condition to stand the journey, the good may be in- 

 jured by the poor, for half a dozen over-ripe berries in a 

 basket are very likely to damage the entire lot. Green 

 berries should also be avoided, but a few of these can 

 be better tolerated than those tliat have become soft and 

 commenced to decay. The topping out of the baskets 

 with a few of the choicest and largest berries is an almost 

 universal practice, and while in the abstract it might be 

 called dishonest, still it is such a universal custom that 

 no one is deceived. It's merely putting the best side out 

 to attract the buyer. 



Crates and baskets are in some cases returned free by 

 the railroad and steamboat companies, unless the distance 

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