Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-08-04
Correspondence of the Cincinnati Gazette.
THE BLACKBERRY TRADE OF KENTUCKY.

MILToN, Trimble Co., Ky July 20, 1859.
This (Trimble) county probably turns out
more berries than any other place of its size in
the world. Until this year the farmers have
generally been accustomed to speak of the ori-
ers as 'the farmers pest" so little did they
know OF the ways of Providence, who, in Civ
ing them this untailing crop, has put ready to
hand, without the toll OF cultivation, a crop
which this year brings them in larger income
than would the same space of ground planted
IN wheat at ninety cents per bushel Walk
from this town to Bedford, and even beyond
that branch out to Palmyra on the one side, or
to Hairs landing on the other; and so long as
the freestone formation lasts there the brers
are running with berries, bearing them down
in all sorts of entanglements
On the ten mile line between this and Bed
ford, there are ten buyers in Bedford there
are two; at Palmyra three; beyond Bedford
two; and in the vicinity of Halls landing one
There are few others who visit points on the
river, but these do no great amount of bust
ness. These buyers are the agents of fruiter-
ers in Cincinnati, who receive two dollars each
per day for receiving the berries and shipping
them. Generally these men are owners of bri-
er patches OF their own. They are authorized
to pay at this time thirty cents per bucket for
all berries taken in; but at the commence
ment OF the season, when the ripe brrries were
more scarce upon the bushes, as high as sixty
cents was paid, and two days later forty cents.
The buyer whose business / am going to
explain owns several patches of berries-one
he reserves for the picking of his own family,
all OF which, from the mother, who is well
nigh on to fifty years of age, down to the
youngest child, are out in the field. Besides
these, he has In other patches, their own and
their nelghbors', fourteen pickers. These start
out at break OF day, and pick until about ten
0 CLOCK, when the sun being very hot the berry
does not stand so well as when picked during
the cooler hours Men, women, and children.
now shoulder their buckets, carry them to the
receiver, who emptes them into the stands,
each drawer of which holds one bushel and
one peck. The number of buckets are now
set down to the picker's credit at the rate of
thirty cents per bucket, and occasionally when
bucket of extra-sized berries is brought in,
an additional five cents is added to its cost
Wagons now come along and bring the
stands to the river at this point, where each
day, between one and five O'Clock, there can
be seen from a hundred to one hundred and
nifty stands and half stands, equal to about
eight hundred bushels of berries which are
daily shipped. In the evening some picking
is again done, the berries being brought in the
following morning. On Friday evening and
Saturday no picking is done, for the reason
that the packet does not run on Saturday to
your city.
was present on Friday at the paying of
the plckers at no less than three stands, and
found, upon inquiry, that the pickers collective.
ly at each earned about S29 per diem. This
yields from 81 20 to 50 so to each picker as
the result of their days exertions One fam
lily received for the weeks picking S27 and
over Not bad wages for children to make.
Up toward Bedford the farmers have only
this year got into the business; the conse
quence OF which is that they are very liberal.
ana they allow their pickers to pluck the fruit
and make no charge therefor, but down nearer
TINS place, where every ripening berry is
watched and plucked as soon as it is black. the
plckerS pay five cents per bucket to the owner
OF the patch, so that he has not only the profit
made by the picking of his own family, but
the additional clear profit of about fifteen cents
per bushel on the berries, which, considering
there has been no cost of cultivation, and thai
there is surety of the crop, is not so bad
The season lasts from four to six week.
All the buying here, or nearly all of it, being
for two or three firms in Cincinnati. | have
been enabled to come pretty nigh the exact
figures of the trade. There are in all eighteen
receivers at a cost of 50 per day, 273 pickers
averaging to receive 50 10 per day, haulers
averaging to receive 81 Sc per day, freight of
100 stands of drawers per day, at 81, making
daily outlay in cash, payable weekly. Of
500 so, or for the season of its usual length
$4,000, all OF which is expended within the
county, except about $4,000. And to the total
amount the occasional expenditure for pre-
MUM buckets and we have total expendi-
ture Of about $4,000.