112 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
It is very essetiitial to keep the groiind 
well pulverised tO' prevent it from forming 
a crust on top and thus drying out too 
easily . 
BEST METHOD OF MARKETING. 
Marketing the berry crop is a very diffi¬ 
cult matter. Almost anyone can grow 
them, but when it comes to marketing 
them it takes one whoi has studied the con¬ 
ditions for several years. My method is 
to select one good reliable commission 
house in each city that I expect to ship to 
(I use New \Mrk, Philadelphia and 
Boston for my markets) and ship tO' him 
regularly. It is well to have berries on 
the market every day if you possibly can. 
Put up your berries in good honest pack¬ 
ages and mark your name on the crate 
and it will not take your commission man 
long to secure a good tradle on your fruit; 
one that the trade will call for. Or, if 
you expect to sell to buyers at your own 
town, it is best to put up honest packages 
and you will never have any trouble in 
selling. The buyers soon learn who puts 
up good berries and are always ready to 
buy that kind. 
GROWTH AND EXTENT OF INDUSTRY IN 
THE STATE. 
The strawberry industry has grown 
wonderfully in this state in the last few 
years. Ten or twelve years ago the ship¬ 
ments from this county on the heaviest 
days were no more than from three to 
four hundred bushels, while last year its 
heaviest day would reach five or six 
thousand bushels. Last year there were 
$9,000.00 worth of berries sold at Starke 
on the wharf in. a single clay, besides 
several hundred bushels shipped on con¬ 
signment. The net sales tO' the groovers 
of this county last season were between 
$350,000 and $400,000, and there seems 
to be no limit to the industry. Several 
years ago, I thought that the market 
would be glutted if we grew too' many 
berries, but last season, with our large 
supply of berries, there was a continued 
cry for more berries. 
DIFFICULTIES AND DRAWBACKS OF STRAW¬ 
BERRY INDUSTRY. 
The principal difficulty in the straw¬ 
berry industry is the drought in the sum¬ 
mer in the setting season. The plant is 
very delicate, and unless we have plenty 
of rain dluring the setting season it is 
very difficult tO' get a stand, and in order 
to get a good yield we must have a good 
stand of nice large bushes, as a small bush 
can never produce the fruit a large one 
will. We sometimes have a drought dur¬ 
ing the picking season that also hurts us 
very much as it makes the fruit small and 
of an inferior quality. The blight gener¬ 
ally strikes us during the dry season. An 
insect (commonly known as the thrip) 
often sucks the bloom and kills it and 
then they work on the small berries. I 
have seen them djestroy an entire fruit 
crop. 
We sometimes have a late freeze that 
destroys a great quantity of fruit, but we 
can’t call this a drawback as it is most 
generally to our advantage as it keeps 
berries back north of here. 
