SUMMER MEETING. 5D 



and averaged as high as a dollar for blackberries ; strawberries were 

 picked at the same price, that is, a ceuta quart; raspberries are usually 

 a cent and a quarter to start on and a quarter of a cent higher at the 

 end of the season. I do not board the pickers. 



By Mr. Barnes — I used to think I would formulate a plan by which 

 I would oJTer premiums; in other words, I found we had pickers who 

 would stay with us and take the cream of the picking and then fall 

 out and leave the work to the inferior pickers, and with peas and 

 beans as well as berries, and I have often thought I would formulate 

 a plan by which I would pay a reasonable price and then would attach 

 a premium or additional price for those who stayed with us and did 

 their work right. I believe it would be a good idea. In practical 

 work it might fail because you know the class of people who pick^ 

 from the little folks who do not know anything about and are not con- 

 cerned in financial matters only as concerns themselves, up to those 

 who understand such matters, but it seems to me it is an idea that 

 would be beneficial to growers of such stuff as must be picked by 

 hand. 



By Mr. Hopkins — It is a very evident fact that at the beginning of 

 a strawberry season when you have large berries that pickers can 

 make good money at a cent a box, but on the wind up it requires a 

 great deal of laborious work to make anything at that price. I pay a 

 cent and a half from beginning to end, and I want to say that after 

 twenty-six years of growing berries I have not had a picker to leave 

 me, not a single one, and sometimes when picking is very hard, I some- 

 times pay two cents, although I am not getting any more. And I want 

 to say, I have tony pickers. I have had some come to me and offer to pick 

 for a season at a cent a box, but I wouldn't turn off my old pickers if 

 they would pick for nothing, and I am going to pay a price that will 

 justify me in getting good help, and I want to say that I get my pick- 

 ers from among the young men and the young women who are gradu- 

 ates of the High school and who are educated. I don't have any of 

 your trashy pickers, and I find it pays in the end to pay a price that 

 will get good help. 



By Mr. Gilbert — I am not so liberal as our Kansas friend. I have 

 adopted a system of paying for berries whereby, if the picker does poor 

 work and gets tired, or gets tired when it gets hot. he receives a dis- 

 count, not a premium. We use these basket carriers, and I have adopted 

 a system of punching cards. It is one I got up myself: take an ordinary 

 shipping tag and make an addition of six for the six boxes and an 

 addition of nine on pink or cardinal colored cards. The addition of 

 nine means a cent and a half a box. If you want to pay a cent and a 



