BERRIES AND CHERRIES BY PARCEL POST. 
5 
PICKING AND PACKING. 
The' treatment that is given strawberries in picking and handling 
in the field, and in packing, has much to do with the damage which 
occurs when they are shipped. Most growers are forced to employ- 
unskilled laborers and children to pick berries, payment being made 
on the basis of the quantity picked. Unless considerable supervi- 
sion is given to such labor, it is likely that berries of nearly all degrees 
of maturity will be placed in the baskets. When the berries are 
ripening very rapidly they should be picked every day so that there 
will be little opportunity for the fruit to become overripe. 
During the periods when experimental shipments were made, it 
was noticed that some pickers placed in the baskets many berries 
that were picked without the caps. Berries from which the caps 
have been removed will not ship well, as they soon begin to spoil. 
Green and overripe berries also are included by careless pickers, 
especially where payment is based on the quantity rather than on 
the quality of the fruit picked. Children sometimes replace in baskets 
the berries which they pick up from overturned boxes. In such 
instances the berries usually are somewhat bruised and conditions 
for decay are encouraged. Grass and trash also are picked up 
with the fruit and their presence gives the berries an unattractive 
appearance. 
Growers who wish to ship berries direct to consumers by parcel 
post should see that care is exercised in picking and handling the 
berries in the field in order to prevent the inclusion of both green and 
overripe berries which detract much from the appeaxance of a basket 
of the fruit. 
Berries which are to be shipped by parcel post should not be handled 
after they are picked, and for this reason the supervision of the 
pickers in the field should be such as to favor the picking and packing 
of fruit of good marketable quality only. 
Some growers permit the pickers to leave berries in the sun until 
a certain number of quarts have been picked. While a picker should 
not be required to take his berries to the packing shed too frequently, 
some method should be used which will get the berries out of the sun 
soon after they are picked. In carrying the berries from the field 
to the packing shed, care should be taken that the fruit is not bruised 
or in any way injured. The packing shed should be convenient to 
the field and should be well ventilated. The person packing the 
berries should see that the baskets are well filled as the berries will 
settle considerably while they are in transit. The baskets should be 
placed carefully in the crate while both the baskets and dividers 
should be in the proper place. In order to allow all the ventilation 
possible, the covers of the crates should not be closed until the berries 
are to be hauled to the station. 
