The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1886-07-28

4 Desc. iption Of the Largest One
in the World.
Where Mirth and Industry Go Hand In
Hand and There Is No Discrimi-
natior Between Male and
Female Labor.

Female Labor.
Did YOU ever see strawberry farm?
Not strawberry bed nor a strawberry
patch, but farm of three or four hum
dred acres, on which nothing is culti-
tiyated but strawberries. Not unless
YOU have been to Florida or somewhere
along the southern Atlantic coast, and
when you get as far up as Norfolk, Va,
you can not only see great number of
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. Altar
off 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.
For nearly all the pickers are negroes,
and the negro laughs, sings, shouts and
dances at his work. 1t is fine, clear
May day-for the Norfolk strawberries
are in their prime about the first week
in 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 comely
dusky maiden have got a good handful
of parti-colored tickets, they are pretty
sure to make dash for the rude dane
ing pavilion and engage in lively
breakdown. Coming out of the skirt of
brushwood into the field the scene I'M
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 bcdlam is soon
found to be really wonderful system
of order. Every thing goes by the
watch of the strawberry farmer, who
knows to aminute when the gang-plank
will be hauled in of the big New York
steamer, putting 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
ers, laden with strawberry crates high
above their heads, upstream to the
steamer. He knows, too, that the in
slant it is flashed over the wires that the
New Jersey berries have touched GER
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-
er. The negro is not like any other
1aborer on earth. He will not work I'M
less he is amused. AS in the old slavery
days when harvest time came the mas
tiers 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 tiddles
and their bones and banjos on the shaky
bench for the musicians; he must let q
booth be erected where lemonade and
candy and tobacco can be bought for
strawberry tickets; he must allow aven-
cradle darby with push-cart to shout
energetically the beauty and luscious
ness of his wares as he trundles his cart
around the edge of the field. The merry,
brown-faced laborers look ragged and
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 tlashy 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
ments. The men and some of the wOm-
en- wear big, coarse hats, but among
,he 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 sX quart-baskets. When this tray is
nlled up it is then taken to the paying
sooth' where the paymaster, with quart
boxes full of red and green tickets, re-
Gelves the baskets and checks them Off
linus, no distinction is made between
male and female labor, and the one that
PieKs the most strawberries makes the
hlshest wages. 1t is the rule on the
large farms not to cash any tickets until
ai'er the rush of the strawberry season
- over, but the ticket is legal tender
ior any thing in and about the straw,
berry farms.
The laborers are divided into gangs,
over each of which is placed an over.
seG' colored, like the pickers them
serves. Sometimes these are surly anc
Msasreeable. But the African being
naturally good tempered creature
M S0y are oftener very jolly fellows
Voting is more amusing than one
uarSy's assumption of authority ovel
s .u,. darky. If a picker is alert ane
.pay' and Particularly if she belongs tt
ne gentler sex, the overseer is patron
Nngiy encouraging.
''Ah, SiSteraN (all owe buo+h.ar nv.