The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1909-07-30
PICKING BERRIES
FOR A Living
Rivalry Among the Experts-Busy
Time in Southwest Missouri.

|
Thousands of pickers are needed to
handle the berry crop of southwestern
SIGNALS. who start in southern Texas
and follow the harvest north, just as
do wheat harvesters. Among these
"crack" pickers there is much rivalry
and the name of Pancake Shorty, p
S. John, Badly Ikey Mitchell, Shakey
O'Brein, ST. Joe Kid and Sheeny Kiel
are all we'll known for their fast work.
Two of these who are rated among
the fastest in the world are holiness
ministers, who preach as well as pick,
says the Kansas City Star
Most of the pickers, however, come
from neighboring counties or from
other sections of the same county or
from nearby cities. In many instances
entire families-men, women and chill
dren-go to the berry fields, most of
them to make money, but few to
enjoy an outing and a week or more of
camp life. During the harvest season
the pickers live in tents, the tented
villages with hundred or more inhab-
itants being quite common. The price
paid for picking is l IL cents quart,
which is cents a tray, or sc cents
crate, a crate consisting of twenty
four quarts.
The pickers are paid as they deliver
the boxes at the field sheds, the
banker handling out the "strawber-
ry money''-aluminum checks, redeem
able at their face value at almost any
store at the local bank. A good pick
er will earn from 81 to 81 day, for
: the work is not so difficult as it seems
the fields being clean and sandy,
gravelly or rocky. There is also
less vine growth and proportionately
more berries than are seen on the or
| binary black land The pickers are
not permitted to go where they please,
but must take the row as directed
, by the field bosses.
Only those have visited the straw
! berry producing counties during the
harvest season, which usually opens
about May is and continues from two
! to four weeks, can have any correct
idea as to the Importance Of the in
] dustry, A visitor arriving in one o
the towns of the berry section, say
i for instance Sarcoxie, in the late after
/ noon or early evening of busy day
sees much to remind him of a stree
fair or circus.
Crowds swarm in the streets. Re
, freshment stands, with a supply o
| pop, lemonade, hamburger, pea
nuts and pie, are doing a rushing bus
ineess. A merry-go-round is taking IL
the pickers' nickles and shooting ga
leries and cane racks are being OPP
Grated with success to the owners
1t is the army of berry pickers at rest
and recreation after the days work fol
them is done.
But over at the unloading sheds
1t is dl1Terent. Inere at Sun0OWn tine
work is just getting fairly under way
From every direction come wagon
loads of berries until near the unload
ing platforms long lines are formed as
the wagons await their turns. 1t is
no uncommon sight to see twenty OIL
thirty wagons in line at 10 o'clock al
night, and it may be far past midnigh
before the last of the refrigator anC
ventilator fruit cars have been iced
and loaded and the berry train is
ready to start on its fast run for the
north. All this time the secretary and
bookkeepers have been busy receipt
ing for each delivery and writing up
| the books. So perfect is the system
that each crate of berries may be trac-
ed from the field where picked to the
purchaser at some distant point.