The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1910-11-20


England quilting bee or sewing circle.
The scene on a typical cranberry
bog today is vastly different from that
OF a few years ago. The pickers still
live on the boys. many of them, for
it is a sort OF unwritten law in the
cranberry country that a grower must
provide shelter for his pickers if they
desire il, but the quarters today are,
in many instances, shaeks of barrack-
like structures, into which the pickers
are crowded like railroad construction
gangs living in old box cars, rather
than the neat camps that prevailed in
the old days. when each family glor-
led in its individual cottage or tent.
The secret of the new order Of things
is found in the new element of labor
that has appeared and has gradually
all but mOnOpOlized the work on the
cranberry boys in the old Bay State.
The invaders-and this seems to be
the only place IN America where they
have sought a foothOld-are not Euro
pean peasants, but Portuguese
speaking negroes from the Cape Verde
islands As has been stated above.
foreign-born women Of a totally Diff
ferent class, notably Swedes and
Firms. still do some of the cranberry
picking, having succeeded TO the task
when the advent OF the new machines
drove out their Yankee sisters, but
the great and eVer-increasing proper
ton of the work Is in the hands of
the dusky natives OF the Cape Verde
islands.
The country at large has had no
hint of the manner in which these
dark-skinned folk from beyond the
Atlantic have stolen in and captured
the brunt Of the labor in time-hon-
ored New England industry. Sight
seers and automobile tourists who
have not been forewarned are usually
perfectly astounded when on nearing
Cane Cod, and within a short ride OF
historic Plymouth and its famous rock
they begin to run across odd little
communities like transplanted West
Indian villages, the people of which
speak a strange tongue and have all
the mannerisms Of aliens in their own
environment. These are the 'bravas,
who have been lured by the magnet
of the high wages paid In the cram
berry industry.
Many OF the Cape Verde islanders
are true nomads in their visits TO the
cranberry country, arriving IN the
sDrine when the cultivation on the
end of the picking season late in the
autumn, making the trip both ways
in sailing vessels. which they charter
for the purpose, and which are en-
gagged during the winter months in
the coasting trade on the coast of Az
rica. Others Of this dark-skinned race
settle down in America for an interval
of some years, and such usually bring
with them their wives and families
a custom that is not common among
the cranberry workers who come TO
tarry merely from spring to fall.
Whether the stay of the Verde island
er be long or short, however, he seems
to have it ever in his mind TO return
to his home and live In the afrluence
that a little store of American gold will
assure To him. Moreover, he piles up
wealth more rapidly than you might
suppose, for a good cranberry picker
will earn all the way from So to So
per day and he need be under no ex
pense for lodging il he is content to
live in the quarters provided on the
bogs.
This class Of pickers have with their
and ability 10 work long
hours without fatigue established new
standards of berry picking in this old
industry. After all. however, the ma
lOr part or the credit belongs 10 the
cranberry picking machines. which
have set the Old-timers by the ears,
for all that they were slow TO adopt
them at first, fearing that they would
iniure the cranberry boys There are
two principal styles of machines. One
resemb les a small wooden box OF con-
venient size 10 be held in the hand
and with jaws which open and close
by the pressure OF the hand which
holds the machine. In operation the
Jaws are opened and the machine
thrust into the tangle OF cranberry
plants. Then the jaws, each armed |
with row of teeth. are made to close /
and when the machine is withdrawn !
the berries are instantaneOusly /
from the stems, remaining in |
the receptacle until the jaws OF the |
are again opened and the |
berries fall into the waiting measure |
Or tray.
The other style picking machine, |
which has been even more extensively |
adopted, consists of a large scoop-like !
made OF wood, except in
the case Of the lower side. which is /
formed from a series OF iron prongs |
set fairly close together and with the |
forward ends pointed TO form teeth. /
IN operation this scoop is showed with
'orce-it is here that muscle is requi-
'ite-intO the tangle of cranberry
vines, AMI when il is drawn back it is