The Arizona sentinel., 1886-07-31
A STRAWBERRY FARM.
A Description of the Largest One
 in the World.
Where Mirth and Industry Go Hand in Hand and There Is No Discrimi- nation Between Male and
 Female Labor.

between Mal6 ana
 Female Labor.
 Did you ever see a strawberry farm Not strawberry bed nor a strawberry patch, but farm of three or four hun
 dred acres, on which nothing is culti
 tivated but strawberries. Not unles. you have been to Florida or somewhere 2iong the southern Atlantic coast, and when you get as far up as Norfolk, Va, you can not only see a great number oi strawberry farms, but one of 440 acres, which is the largest of its kind in the world, as Norfolk is the greatest straw berry shipping place in the world. Afar of the delicious odor comes waited, and little closer-mind, this is straw berry time-the glow, the picturesque ness, the work and fun are unsurpassed. Tor nearly all the pickers are negroes, and the negro laughs, sings, shouts and dances at hIs work. It is a fine, clear May day-for the Norfolk strawberries
 
 1n May-and half mile from the straw berry fields one can hear the shrill laughter, the wild cries of the laborers, the hoarse shouts of the overseers, the sounds of music and dancing, as, when strapping young fellow or a comedy dusky maiden have got good handful of parti-colored tickets, they are pretty sure to make dash for the rude danc- ing pavilion and engage in lively breakdown. Coming out of the skirt of brushwood into the field the scene un- folds itself. The hot May sunshine pours down upon hundreds of men, women and children, nearly all black. The field is divided into long rows and what appears to be bedlam is soon found to be really wonderful system of order. Every thing goes by the watch of the strawberry farmer, who knows to minute when the gang-plank will be hauled in of the big New York steamer, pufing and steaming in her dock up the river, her dark hull out lined clearly against the wharves and shipping of Norfolk-who calculates to a second how long it will take the stall wart oarsman to pull the heavy light CTS, laden with strawberry crates high above their heads, upstream to the steamer. He knows, too, that the in- stant it is flashed over the wires that the New Jersey berries have touched cer- tain figure he can not ship another basket, although he may have thousands of them filled with the luscious fruit. So, from the day he begins to ship until the New Jersey berries come in he has every energy under whip and spur to get the berries on the New York steaN- CT. The negro is not like any other labOrer on earth. He will not work un- less he is amused. As in the old slavery days when harvest time came the mas ters furnished ice and whisky and had a banjo in the field, and the head man in the long row with swinging scythes was ordered to sing his reaping song loudly, that the others might join in as the gilt tering blades moved down the wheat, so the strawberry farmer of to- day has to keep his hands amused or they will not work. He must allow the rough pavilion to be put up he must let Josh and Yellow Jack and Sam Jubilee bring their rusty old fiddles and their bones and banjos on the shaky bench for the musicians; he must let booth be erected where lemonade and candy and tobacco can be bought for strawberry tickets; he must allow aven- erable darky with a push-cart to shout the beauty and luscious ness of his wares as he trundles his cart around the edge of the field. The merry, hrn fo loh poor, albeit their pockets are stuffed with tickets-the currency of the straw berry field-but the pickers always wear their old clothes in strawberry time. They have flashy silk frocks and glossy broadclOth at home, but down on their knees or sitting squat on the ground would be death. to those sacred gar-'I ments. The men and some of the wOm- en wear big, coarse hats, but among the women the antediluvian slat sun- bonnet IS by no means superseded, for the colored belle is always careful of her complexion. Each has tray holding six quart-baskets. When this tray is | filled up it is then taken to the paying booth, where the paymaster, with quart | boxes full of red and green tickets, re- cSlNeS IHe DdSheIS dIlu cD6cKS them Off. 1 Thus, no distinction is made between male and female labor, and the one that 1 picks the most strawberries makes the highest wages. It is the rule on the | large farms not to cash any tickets until after the rush of the strawberry season | is over, but the ticket is legal tender i for any thing in and about the straw berry farms.
 The laborers are divided into gangs, over each of which is placed an over seer, colored, like the pickers them selves. Sometimes these are surly and 1 But the African being naturally good tempered creature, IiFy are oftener very jolly fellows. ! othing is more amusing than one iarky's assumption of authority over another darky. If a picker is alert and ;pry, and particularly if she belongs to .he gentler sex, the overseer is patron zing!y encouraging.
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