1/4 SUCCESS WITH SMALL FRUITS. 



who are continually moving around among them, on the 

 watch for delinquencies of all kinds. Some of these minor 

 potentates are white and some black. As a rule, Mr. Young 

 gives the blacks the preference, and on strictly business 

 principles, too. "The colored men have more snap, and 

 can get more work out of their own people," he says. 

 By means of these sub-overseers, large numbers can be 

 transferred from one part of the farm to another without 

 confusion. 



Fortunes are never made in gathering strawberries, and 

 yet there seems no dearth of pickers. The multitude of 

 men, women, and children that streams out into the country 

 every morning is surprisingly large. Five or six thousand 

 bushels a day are often gathered in the vicinity of Norfolk, 

 and the pickers rarely average over a bushel each. " Right 

 smart hands," who have the good hap to be given full rows, 

 will occasionally pick two bushels ; but about thirty quarts 

 per day is the usual amount, while not a few of the lazy and 

 feeble bring in only eight or ten. 



As has been already suggested, the pickers are followed 

 by the buyers and packers, and to these men, at central 

 points in the fields, the mule-carts bring empty crates. The 

 pickers carry little trays containing six baskets, each holding 

 a quart. As fast as they fill these, they flock in to the buy- 

 ers. If a trayful, or six good quarts, are offered, the buyer 

 gives the picker a yellow ticket, worth twelve cents. When 

 less than six baskets are brought, each basket is paid for 

 with a green ticket, worth two cents. These two tickets are 

 eventually exchanged for a white fifty-cent ticket, which is 

 cashed at the paying-booth after the day's work is over. 

 The pickers, therefore, receive two cents for every quart of 

 good, salable berries. If green, muddy, or decayed berries 

 are brought in, they arc thrown away or confiscated, and 



