Methods of Culture in the South. 



139 



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

 sionally 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 buyers. 

 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 

 are thrown away or confiscated, and 

 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 crateful. Only Mr. Young 

 and one other person have a right 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 

 medium 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 



A Picker. 



