124 



Success with Small Fruits. 



olden time, almost everything required in the business is made on the 

 place, and nearly every mechanical trade has a representative in Mr. 

 Young's employ. 



As we drove up under the pines, the proprietor of the farm wel- 

 comed us with a cordial hospitality, which he may have acquired in 



The Home Field and Mr. Young's Cottage. 



part from his residence in the South. On the porch stood a slender 

 lady, whose girlish grace and delicate beauty at once captivated the 

 artists of our party. 



There was the farm we had come to see, stretching away before us in 

 hundreds of green, level acres. As we drove to a distant field in which 

 the pickers were then engaged, we could see the ripening berries with one 

 side blushing toward the sun. Passing a screen of pines, we came out 

 into a field containing thirteen acres of Wilson strawberries, and then 

 more fully began to realize the magnitude of the business. Scattered 

 over the wide area, in what seemed inextricable confusion to our uniniti- 

 ated eyes, were hundreds of men, women, and children of all ages and 

 shades of color, and from the field at large came a softened din of voices, 

 above the monotony of which arose here and there snatches of song, 

 laughter mellowed by distance, and occasionally the loud, sharp orders of 

 the overseers, who stalked hither and thither, wherever their " little brief 

 authority " was most in requisition. 



We soon noted that the confusion was more apparent than real, and 

 that each picker was given a row over which he or, more often, she 

 bent with busy fingers until it was finished. At central points crates 

 were piled up, and men known as " buyers " received the round quart 

 baskets from the trays of the pickers, while wide platform carts, drawn 

 by mules, were bringing empty crates and carrying away those that had 

 been filled. 



