S8 
Make your wife happy this year by ordering some 
cheese used for home consumption was 
shipped from Utica, 60 miles away. One day a 
local cheese maker conceived the idea of mak¬ 
ing enough soft cheese for the local trade. 
Wise man. Will the day ever come when we, 
who do not grow apples, can buy a few bar¬ 
rels of the large growers who do. Where Is 
Hoover? 
Some years ago the late J. H. Hale intro¬ 
duced a new strawberry which he called 
11-69 p. m. Some one suggested that he 
stretch It one minute; he did, and afterwards 
called it “Midnight” A few years ago S. R. 
Divine of Sullivan County, N. Y., covered 
several acres of Marshall strawberries in the 
©oldest part of the winter with straw and 
ice, keeping them back so that the berries 
ripened in August. It is not necessary to 
stretch your Imagination or cover your fields 
with ice now in order to have strawberries 
In August, the fall bearing varieties attend 
to this. If these varieties are denuded of 
blossoms in early spring and the blossoms 
kept cut until near July Ist, you can pick 
plenty of berries In August. You can now 
have ripe strawberries any time from early 
in June until November by proper manipu¬ 
lation of the blossoms. We had strawberries 
In August last summer from common kinds 
of plants that were kept dormant in cold stor¬ 
age and set out In the field about five weeks 
before we picked the fruit from them. 
Someone asked about Mr. Katkamier^s idea 
of setting strawberry plants In the late fall 
Instead of waiting until the busier time of 
early spring. It Is all right. I would cover 
each late fall set plant with common earth 
from the side of the rows, about two inches 
deep, as soon as it begins to freeze hard in 
November. What is true of strawberries is 
also true with raspberries, blackberries, and 
ill small fruit plants. If set in the fall and 
1 mound of earth placed over or around each 
plant, the results are very satisfactory and 
we get done what otherwise might be undone 
If left until spring. But plants must be 
ripened or mature, or else taken up from the 
field and set out the same day. 
One man tells me that the St. Regis rasp¬ 
berry is more dependable, even for the spring 
crop, that the Cuthbert. He says it seems 
to become more fruitful from year to year, 
after several years, while Cuthberts seems to 
fail and run out after two good crops. An¬ 
other man tells me St. Regis is a failure so 
far is its fall crop is concerned and the berries 
are too small for market in the regular sea¬ 
son. All this comes from New York grow¬ 
ers. 
One man tells me that he sows buckwheat 
among his raspberries and currants when 
cultivating in early spring. No more culti¬ 
vating is done until after fruiting. The pick¬ 
ers trample down the buckwheat and it acts 
as a mulch and to smother weeds. He says 
“It Is always wet, you know, under buckwheat 
straw.” Another man tells me that unless he 
maintains constant cultivation among his 
raspberries and currants until the fruit be¬ 
gins to ripen the berries dry up. The soils 
must be different. What is poison to one Is 
food to another. You must find out yourself. 
I find that one of the greatest values of a 
winter mulch for strawberries is in killing 
the early crop of spring weeds. If the mulch 
is left on until the plants have grown a little 
and look a little sprouty, it kills myriads of 
weeds. If on your soil, your plants do not 
winterkill by heaving, try mulching part of 
your bed and leave the rest un-mplched. In 
picking time, notice how clean your mulched 
portion will be compared to the un-mulched, 
even if the straw is all removed. 
Mulching with straw to overcome effects of 
drouths does much but cultivation does more. 
The wide matted row produces one or two 
good pickings in a very dry season then siz¬ 
zles up. Suppose you dig up all the plants 
but the narrow row of parent plants; or bet¬ 
ter still, don't allow the runners to form a 
wide, matted row, cut them off; then culti¬ 
vate this row close up to the plants but shal¬ 
low, from the time the berries ret until pick¬ 
ing is over and you will be surprised at tha 
quantity and quality of the fruit produced. 
Use good baskets and substantial crates. 
The tendency now-a-days is to use slimpsy 
crates and baskets. It does not pay to save 
A half cent per quart on your package and 
lose 6 cents per quart on your fruit. The 32 
qt. or bushel crate Is the best ever. We 
make up small crates holding 8, 12, and 16 
qts. for our local parcel post trade. We put 
cotton wadding over the tops of the last 
row of baskets. 
Berry picking seems to develop the worst 
traits of a person’s character. It cannot safe¬ 
ly be said that there are tricks In all trades 
except picking berries. A man who will suc¬ 
cessfully handle an Indiscriminate bunch of 
berry pickers without loosing his temper and 
cussing someone, deserves a place at the 
right hand. For thirty-four years I have 
been studying the question, I haven't solved 
it yet. One of the worst things to contend 
with Is to get some pickers to fill up their 
baskets so they will hold out when fixed and 
put into the crates. They are continually 
conveying the impression that they are giving 
you extra measure. How would it do to 
weigh a full crate of berries and find out 
about what an average quart of strawberries 
would weigh. Then weigh the picking stands 
or handles and have them all uniform In 
weight. When the picker came in with a 
handy, place it on the scales, deduct the 
weight of the handy and give the picker 
credit for net weight of the berries and bas¬ 
kets, paying by weight Instead of measure. 
Suppose an average of 4 qts. of berries 
weighed 5 lbs. If the picker brought in 6 lbs. 
It would make no difference to him, because 
the total number of pounds for the day would 
be added up and divided by five to show the 
number of handies full or quarts picked. 
We numbered each berry picker the past 
season, put their name and number down on a 
sheet of paper each day and gave them each 
small slips of paper with their num¬ 
ber on the little slips. When a picker 
