Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-10-10


straight lines across the bog. Every picker,
after having been assigned to his row,
must pick it clean suffer the dicipline of
the boss--usually a babble of curses in
cadence with vigorous gesticulations of
head and limb.
But, all told. these Italian pickers are
the happiest laborers whom 1 have ever
seen toll. They seem to regard their task
as a jolly outing. AS they proceed slowly
on their knees across the meadows the
breeze watts to the ears of spectators along
the Forest edges sweet. mellow harmony
or choral song instructive only among
l-atins. 1t is o. sight for Millais-thess
dreamy-eyed girls of Italy their abundant
black locks crowned with gaudy bandanas;
these mature peasant women spangled with
long, dangling earrings; these ollve-skinned
boys with bright-colored caps and neck kerr
chiefs.
A Hundred in One Shanty.
The Italian pickers are hauled from tho
cities sometimes in special trains and live In
sort of gypsy fashion in the shanties sur
rounding the bog. One grower who had
rows of small shanties built to accommo-
date his Italian pickers surprised to
discover that they preferred crowdng their
entire number into one house to dstribut-
ing themselves among the many buildings
he took me to their headquarters just be-
fore picking time. and when their head
boss blew his whistle to assemble them for
inspection the sight WAS like the breaking
OF spiders egg. Score after score rushed
excitedly from the scant habitation in a
veritable stampede and quickly formed into
a group in which L counted a full hundred
SWarthy faces. How they found breathing
space in the little shanty at night was Il
puzzle sufficient to cover the modern hy-
gienist with goosefesh. In this crowded
communism these people find themselves
with food, mostly macaroni, bread and
cheese, shipped to them from the city
These foreign pickers formed themselves
IN a long column of twos at the command
of the head boss and proceeded to march
to the bog. Here they We're assigned to
their rows in the section where the pre-
vfous days harvest had been INTERRUPTED
by darkness. Each picker with square,
black peck measure held before him
clasped group after group of vines between
his hands, joined his finger and comb
ed out the abundant fruit. His peck meas
ure being filled he carried it to a long line
or crates at the bogs edge, where
employe of the grower poured out the ber-
ries and another. standing before Il tin
strong box, handed him red ticket good
for 10 cents at the cashng-in time. Each
measure underwent strict inspection,
pickers who brought grass, leaves or
stems in their boxes being reprimanded or
sent back to add sufficient of the fruit
to compensate. About the ticket-gver was
constantly jabbering. gesticuating and
grinning group, vying for the chance to
babbe a rhythm of words which fell in vain
upon his ear. After being filled each row
of crates was lifted upon open wagon
and hauled to a storage house.
Automatic Sorter
In the storehouse a man turned the crank
of a machine which famed cleaned and
assorted the fruit. distributing it among
three crates placed beneath. In one FELL
the largest and soundest berries; in
other those of medium grade; in the third
the few injured or decayed. The principle
of this ingenious mechanism is that the
soundest berry, when dropped from the
feeder bounce to the farthest crate and
vice versa. But there is little use for this
mechanism until frost sets in or unless
part of the fruit has suffered from scald.
The cranberry of this region being I'M
usually sound and hearty. it is usually
accepted lin the rough" by the trade.
The Jersey cranberry is very nearly
white during the early picking, but gradu-
ally reddens toward frost, whether in stor-
age or on the ground. Cranberries as a
whole differ widely in tint do apples,
the small Cape Cod variety being dark
red and the large Jersey berry being mot
tied While the dark berry is preferred by
the eastern trade, on account of its color,
the Jersey berry is sought by the western
buyer account of its superior keeping
quality and greater proportion of meat TO
skin and seed. 1 heard a commission mer-
chant score the eastern housewife for her
superstition that the small, dark cranberry
makes jelly and sauce of superior color
and flavor to that made from the lighter,
but meatier Jersey berry.
Exchanging tickets.
The other evening. after day of heavy
picking, l was invited by a grower to wit
ness the regular ceremony of exchanging
tickets among his italian pickers. We
tramped for a quarter of an hour, finding
the dusky harvesters congregated about
several bonfires Bindled in the open. The
head boss whistle was blown and each
picker filed up to the ticket-taker, who gave
each Toured peck tickets handed him. For
each score of red tickets he returned one
yellow or "five-busher' ticket. In this
manner the bits of pasteboard most in use
are recalled each day for reissue. After
the exchange had been consummated we re-
manned to watch the Italians dance to the
accompaniment of an accordion, performed
upon by the head boss" a very rotund
man, who varied the evenings entertain
ment with a solo or two and an imitation
of the jackasS' bray. which latter feature
was greeted by shouts of approval from his
vast army OF sCbordinates. A conspicuous
feature of the dance was that the sexes
never mingled upon the open space used as
a floor. 1t was a sort OF monotonous horn
pipe, in which two dancers, face to face,
took part.
= labor-saving device. now being expert
mented upon on the Jersey boys, but whose
success has already been demonstrated on
those of Cape Cod, is the harvesting rake,
It was looked upon With prejudice by the
conservative grower because of an mag
ncd injury TO the vines. But recently sew
eral growers who have made bold to ex-
pertinent with it have discovered that 1t
benefits rather than Injuries the next years
crop. 1t is a scoop with comb-teeth By
this scooping process the harvesting costs
the Cape Cod grower % cents barrel. The
hand picking costs the Jersey grower just
six times much for the same measure.
Hand pickers earn from 81 to 81 a day in
good weather.
Thousands of bushels of New Jersey cram
berries will be left upon the boys this year,
simply because a sufficiency of pickers can
not be found The total crop for this year
IN the state is estima ted at :}O4, 80 bushels
on which the grower will net over 81 per
bushel. The average yield is but 100000
bushels for New Jersey.
JOHN ELFRETH WATKINS JR
Shelf you were going to make love,
low would you begin?''