Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1891-07-29
A LAND OF BLAcKBERRIEs.
Twenty-Five Thousand Buckets Picked
Within a Stretch of 35 Miles,

| CORRESPONDENCE OF THE DIsPArCH.1
| On THE STEAMER BERLIN, July 27-Piles,
| rows and pyramids of buckets of black
| berries Not the cultivated, insipid article,
| but the lustrous, luscious wild blackberries,
| Indigenous to the soil, are what THE Dis
PATCH correspondent saw from the hurri-
cane roof of the steamer Ben Hur, at dozens
of points between st. Marys, W. Va. and
Clarington, O., on the Ohio river a day or
two ago. How many people know any
thing of the importance and extent of the
blackberry season-how the fruit is gath
cred, or how shipped to market.
The thoughtful housewife, with her pros
pective view of long, comfortable rows of
Jars and cans of jam or airtights, Or bottles
of wine and cordial, goes to the market or
store nearby, and purchases buckets of the
luscious fruit with dim idea that black
berries grow on bushes in the gardens about
the city, where they are cultivated like
many other fruits. She has no idea that the
great portion of the berries are wild, that
thousand of buckets are daily arriving in
the cities, gathered among the hills and
glens. the valleys and neglected fields for
dreds of people, and even to steamboats, and
railroads, the blackberry season is an impor-
tant factor in their trade. Yet such is the fact
The blackberry season begins about July
Is and ends about the 30th. During that
short period the principal carrying business
of numbers of boats is confined to the black
berry trade. The fruit grows all along the
upper Ohio valleys. 1t is found among the
hills and valleys; in the glens and open
spaces, wherever the rays of the sun can
penetrate, but the greatest number are found
in old deserted fields and along the fences.
Some of the best territory is found along
the Ohio river between st. Marys, W. Va,
and Clarington, o., from between which
points there has been shipped already this
season not less than 25, 700 buckets into the
markets of Bellaire, Wheeling and Pittsburg.
The steamer Ben Hur alone has carried over
10000 buckets while other daily packets and
the. railroads have done an equally large
business.
Among the pickers are men, women and
children, many of them going out of the
cities during the season to combine pleasure
with proht-camplng out with prospect OF
being on the right side of their bank ac-
counts at the close of the season. The
greater number, however, are country peo-
pie, who went over the ground before the
season opened and selected the best terri
tory. These people frequently camp out,
also, living in temporary cabins or shake
downs constructed of poles and covered
eat and sleep-men, women and children.
The pickers are up betimes and before
the sun is high enough to render the work
uncomfortable they have gathered all of the
ripest and most marketable berries within q
certain radius. The buckets are then carried
to the river bank, where they are loaded on
the up-going steamer for the market. On
its down trip the steamer brings back the
buckets taken up the day before, together
with such groceries or provisions as have
been ordered by the shippers.
The berries this season, which is believed
to have been the best for many years, have
brought prices ranging from rs cents to so
cents a bucket. At these prices the pickers
make pretty fair wages, some OF them fre-
quently gathering as many as four or five
buckets in day. The best of the pickers
are said to be boys and girls of IA years of
age or upward. Their size and agility enable
them to force their way easier into the fire.
quently matted bushes, while their nimble
fingers outstrip those of older persons.
1t is a unique and interesting sight to see
big Ohio river steamer covered with rows
of buckets from deck to roof, going up
stream like floating mountain of buckets.