METHODS OF CULTURE IN THE SOUTH. 1 75 



incorrigibly careless pickers are driven off the place. Every 

 morning the buyers take out as many tickets of these three 

 values as they think they can use, and are charged with the 

 same by the book-keeper. Their voucher for all they pay 

 out is another ticket, on which is printed " Forty-five 

 quarts," or just a cratefal. Only Mr. Young and one other 

 person have a riglit to give out the last-named tickets, and 

 by night each buyer must have enough of them to balance 

 the other tickets with which he was charged in the morning. 

 Thus thousands of dollars change hands through the me- 

 dium of four kinds of tickets not over an inch square, and by 

 means of them the financial part of gathering the crop is 

 managed. 



In previous years these tickets were received the same as 

 money by any of the shops in the city, and on one occasion 

 were counterfeited. Mr. Young now has his own printing- 

 office, and gets them up in a way not easily imitated, nor 

 does he issue them until just as the fruit begins to ripen. 

 He has, moreover, given authority to one man only to cash 

 these tickets. Thus there is little chance for rascality. 



He also requires that no tickets shall be cashed until the 

 fields have all been picked over. Were it not for this regu- 

 lation, the lazy and the " bummers " would earn enough 

 merely to buy a few drinks, then slink off. Now they must 

 remain until all are through before they can get a cent. 

 Peters and Harrison see to it that none are lying around in 

 the shade, and thus, through the compulsion of system, 

 many, no doubt, are surprised to find themselves at work 

 for the greater part of the day. 



And yet neither system nor Peters, with even his sanguin- 

 ary reputation, is able alone to control the hordes employed. 

 Of course the very dregs of the population are largely repre- 

 sented. Many go out on a " lark," not a few to steal, and 



