THE CROP. l6l 



good watch must be kept for the first berries 

 ready, and it is as well to turn pickers a few at 

 first into the clearings directly there is anything 

 worth their picking, since, if the crop is a good 

 one, and allowed to ripen throughout on the bushes, 

 very few estates are so well supplied with labour as 

 to be ready to properly strip the bushes before 

 much cherry has followed its natural destination 

 and fallen overripe to the ground, or vanished 

 tinder attacks of birds and animals. So we begin 

 at once, in order to keep pace__with the ripening 

 berries, and usually three, or at the most four, 

 gleanings the middle pick being always the most 

 considerable lasting from November to January, 

 will be sufficient to store all there is to be had 

 that season. 



Men, women, and children are employed at 

 the picking season, and it is a sight lively enough 

 to see them marshalled along the head of a clear- 

 ing in the early morning waiting for the signal 

 to begin, while white-clad maistries run hither 

 and thither brandishing their sticks and seeing 

 each row of Coffee has its picker, so that every 

 tree may be fairly searched. As we noticed under 

 "Weeding," the active and delicate fingers of 

 women or children rival at this task those of the 

 men. All being paid pro rata, it is a good time 

 for the coolies, who, on an estate which they like, 

 are unusually industrious and jovial at "cherry 

 ripe " season. 



M 



