Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1869-05-20
From the Horticultural
Additional Hints on Marketing small
Fruits.
DY b. y. ooMMlNGs, NEW Britain, or.

DY b. y. CoMMINGs, NEW BRITAIN, CT.
The culture of small fruits is extending so
widely throughout the country, that every
fact relative to their proper care and means
necessary to secure highest market prices
becomes OF vital interest to every fruit
grower
addition to what has hitherto been said
on the subject of shipping fruit for market;
| add few notes that have come under my
immediate observation.
Last year, observed that berries shipped
in good packages from Virginia, Maryland,
Delaware and Soutl-Jcrsey sold for high
prices, while thousands of quarts picked on
the same days, and shipped by the same route
in tight, square, or gift boxes, were either
thrown away as worthless, or sold at prices
that made little or no return to the grower.
1t is now pretty well understood among
commission men and retail dealers that no
tight box, no box with perpendicular sides
nor with many sharp edges can bring her
ries to market in good condition, and deal
ers generally refuse to handle such packa-
ges, and close them ont at discount.
Crates, too, are used of great variety ii
patterns and inferiorly made. II is hardly
necessary for me to urge what has been often
the strongest material, thoroughly bound
and roned at the corners, and Is neatly
planed as possible Good looks in berry
baskets and crates are decided help to
sales.
The berry baskets themselves should lie
broadest at the top, SO that the berries may
support each other. In a box or basket
with perpendicular sides, the whole weight
of the berries rest on the bottom. and us a
IL, ln,Nr nj aia, tI.n
smashed and ferments. \ good berry has ket
whether square or round, should have ven
,ilaied sides and slope from the top inward.
All perishable fruits require ventilation III
proportion to the warmth of the weather
and the amount of water they contain, and
The rapidity with which they part with it
Most fruits can he preserved for long tim,
IN cool, dry atmosphere without ycniia
tion.
We have seen early potatoes shipped ii
July in tight barrels nearly rnined on th,
passage from Norfolk 10 New York. A MAJ
might as well attempt to live without air a
TO transport Strawberries any considerable
distance without ventilation. II is possible
however, to have too much of a good thing
A ripe strawberry laid in an open windov
or on a shelf will wilt and shrink mn in
very short time. In very warm, dry wealth
or, strawberries in basket so open as /
aunllt oil Tree circulation through the On
tire basket will shrink one fifth of their bul
in a single day The ventilation of an
kind of fruit SHOULD only be sufficient {
convey off the vapor which exhales in
comparative confined atmosphere.
Fruit CARs.-Cars for Transporting iru
should be kept cool, free from dust, and SUI
iiciently ventilated to carry off the moistur
which may escape from the fruit. Nor
this all fruit cars should be adjusted wit
springs, to jar the berries as little as poss
BILE. 1t may not be very easy to secure a
that we desire without an effort The fru
growers of the great berry districts of Sout
Jersey, Delaware and Maryland should con
blne to secure this result. If they woul
employ competent men and construct the
own cars, if they can not get them withou
they would save thousands Of dollars ~
nually. Car building is not in our line, b,
we would advise that all fruit-cars Shout
DO put on the best possible springs, and III
sides and top made double. On the sides
the car, near the roof, there should be hoot
or cowls which will work as exhauste
when the car is in motion.
The experiment has been repeatedly trio
of transporting berries on ice, but 1t hi
generally proved a failure; the excessi,
moisture of the atmosphere injuring the fru
quite as much as ii is benefited by the 10
temperature. A recent invention by