The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1895-11-05
-----------------------
PICKING CR1NBERRIES,

Gathering the Juicy Fruit for Thanksgiv-
ing sauce--w Whole Families at worl-Life
and Color Down in the Boys IN Old Cape
Goddard Labor and Small Profits.
from the Hartford Times.l
If you ask in New England where the
cranberries come from, you will be told
anywhere from Middleboro down
through the Cape, which is, of course,
Cape Cod If youNvisit any village in
southeastern Massachusetts in mid-Sep-
TENDER or early October you will find
the greater part Of the population alb
sent. They are in the cranberry boys.
There you will find whole families,
from children Of nine to the grandfath-
ers and grandmothers, ten nimble fin
gers and a pretty stiff back being the
only prerequisites. Here are found
hundreds of pickers in early September
gathering the berries ON the extensive.
boys.
The bogs lie in the region between
Plymouth and Buzzards Bay where
President Cleveland makes his summer
home, one group under the irrigation Of
the Wankenco river in Rochester,
Wareham and Plymouth, and another
in Barnstable and Marshfield.
The pickers are both Cape people and
foreigners, but represent the rural pop
ulation of towns as far as New Hamp-
shire. The numbers of a village like
| Carver, which are originally about a
thousand, are swollen at this time to
three thousand. While it is the most
considerable agricultural industry of
the state, 1t Is also the most picturesque
Amid the bushes and vines that encir-
Gle the swamps teams are tethered.
The groups of Cape people are gay in
a sort of improvised uniform, the wo-
men in light calicoes and great straw
haying hats, tied in graceful shapes and
decked with bows Of bright cambria
an ample and becoming head-covering,
far more becoming than any other they
wear. But the old-fashioned calico
''slat" sunbomet frequently appears,
the ugliest of rustic apparel, yet even
that sometimes, made of red or pink
stuff, looked gay and pretty. Black
stocking legs drawn tight over the
arms, and black half gloves, give the
effect of quite a complete uniform.
The men, as usual, were much less
pleasing, costumed generally in over
als and faded shirts, many in tatters,
showing patches of sunburnt, shoulder
through the rents; but few blue har-
vest shirts stood in evidence that some
of them, at least, had thrifty women to
look after them. Contrary to the COM
mon expectation, the foreigners made
much less agreeable show. Save for
| the red neck-kerchiefs and bodices
dingy black seemed the prevailing color.
A group of pickers, either settled at
their work, close to the ground, or ly-
| ing about at ease, waiting for orders, or
moving rapidly in squads, from point
| to point, their big tin measures gieam-
| ing, makes a vivid scene against the
broad, dark carpet of the level Dag.
| 1t is no wonder the Dogs are lively.
Each one earns what he can, and that,
| in some cases, is eight or even ten dol
| lars a day, but this latter is the highest
| record ever made by an experienced
| picker As L sat in the grimy little
| country store through an appalling
thunder storm, the pickers struggled in
for refuge. They were boys and young
ish men and they briefly compared notes
| Of the days work. Although 1t was but
three o'clock, their tally had been from
| twenty to thirty measures.
The measures are low six-quart pals,
ringed in subdivisions. The wage is
from eight to ten cents measure, ac-
cording to the plentifulness of the fruit
Three dollars for seven hours of manual
labor is a great sum. On the Wan
keneo and neighboring plantations a
machine is used for picking, a sort Of
small iron Mandrake, with a covering,
forming a box, with a valve-like cover
Of wood opening to receive and shutting
| to retain the slippery spheres. This