Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1894-03-16

hard in tho affections of the people.
1t does as much now toward support
ing them, and it is tho only thing to
eat that that desert was ever known to
produce.
Jersey grows cranberries, too, and
the picking business is moro pictur-
esque than on the Cape. There tho
"homo folks" manage, by turning all
the men, women and children into tho
boys, to handle tho crop, and, as
everybody knows, there is nothing ex-
citing about the native Cape Cooler.
He is suitable subject for Miss Will
kins's pen, but hardly for Rider Hag-
| CARDS.
But in Jersey, around Cranberry
Centre and Pine Ridge, the picking is
done by wild md vagrant class, many
OF whom manage to get along with no
visible means of support all tho year
TIL the time comes that they can work
IN the hop fields or tho cranberry Dogs.
The worst of the work is the stoop-
ing. Many of the men have their
knees capped with leather, and move
about more or less without getting ND.
About third Of tho piclkers at Pine
Ridge and theroabout AFRO women, and
1T is noticeable that they aro in overy
way less systematic ut their work than
the men; they stoop, they bend to
their knees, they sit down on the
ground for change.
They pick as fast ns tho mon first
part of tho day." said the buyer, who.
in shed at tho edge of the bog was
measuring fruit. "but they give out
sooner. But they como out of tho
season with more money than the men,
for they don't throw it away SO fast. I"
Many of tho pickers here are col
ored people, and many are Italians.
and with both gambling is great pas
time. They stop during tho day 70
gamble with their tickets" These
tickets are given them instead of
money by tho buyer and arc redeem
able once n week.
Tho actual picking is done in pnils
or baskets slung around tho neck {:
these arc emptied ns filled into n big.
flat, wooden box TINT can be swung
comfortably on tho back When it is
hlled 1t is slung there, and SO carried
to the buyers she'd bushel of
berries is IL small load and bushel
and half good sized one.
In most of this region the CRANBERRY
is still regarded rs sent by the grace
OF God, one man having MS good
right to it MS another. Pickers who,
under this sort of squatter sovereign.
ty, own their berries, get this fill
fifty cents bushel for them. Some of
the men can pick three bushels and
moro in day. But many of them
shorten their lnbors by ngame of seven
up in tho woods after they have taken
in couple of bushels.
Many of Tho colored people live in
cabins around the highlands, and
some of them board other piokcrs dur
ing tho cranberry season-S2. so n
week is popular price.
In other parts of Jersey the boys
and their product are treated ms pri
vate property. and then tho picking is
done by children and neighbors mainly.
There is no such chance to make
money as the wild bogs afford, and
strangers are not drawn to the work.
Things are managed on this plan, too,
MT Cape Cod. But, though on the
Cape hired laborers picking in private
boys, so to speak, get only twenty five
cents bushcl, the discrepancy is not
so great rs it seems. Picking can be
done faster in these private boys; the
plants are in better condition, largely
because of moro careful hnndling in
previous picking seasons, they grow
more thickly, and the culture That is
bestowed upon them results in bigger
berries and more of them.
81 tell you," said West street mer-
chant, who goes into cranberries deep,
ms he puts it, and who visited Cape
Cod in the beginning OF tho season to
examine the crop, "there isn't pref
tier sight than some of those cultiva-
ted bogs down there, after the berries
are ripe. You see the bushes, vines
they call them mostly there, and they
are neither bushes nor vines, as n mat
ter of fact-well, whatever YOU call
them, they amt big enough, and
haven't leaves enough on it to hide the
berries, and they just show up red and
bright in the sun, over miles of coun-
try, till its pretticr than any flowers.
The girls pick down there, and some
times they'll put some berries on the
stem Ill their dresses or in their hair,
and when they are good looking it
looks nice, tell you. You've seen
those immense big cranberries in mar
ket this year, haven't you? And you
thought they we're the best, didn't
you? They are what they call cult
waited berry, and they bring high
price for their looks. but pretty is as
pretty does with cranberry, and
those are not the best cranberries !;
they are dry, and have not the flavor
nor the acid some of the smallest Der
ries have. The big ones and the best
ones both come from Cape Cod, but
they are not the same thing.
''They doctor with cranberries down
on the Cape-did you know that? L
got touch of erysipelas while I was
there. I have it in my arm once in a
while. 1 was going to hurry back to
see my own doctor here, but the old
lady where was stopping begged me
to let her put poultice on it. What
| kind of q po1lticao eoid x,,a+tx,un,,.