This made for difficult, backbreaking work. The potato picker was introduced in the 1940's, and became popular on P.E.I. in the 1950's. It basically ran on the same principle as the digger, except the potatoes fell off the elevator into bags. This reduced the workload. Children were paid small amounts of money to buy clothes and supplies for winter.
Potato farms are able to produce more while having fewer workers.
The Lure of the Farm - to see trends in farm labour since 1931. Originally graders were simply a crude slat with a bag attached to the end. Potatoes were inspected on the slat and moved by hand into the bag. These were called slat graders . Eventually, mechanical graders came into wide use.