RASPBERRY PICKING 143 



accommodation, and they obtain their food from the 

 central kitchens at extremely low prices, just calculated 

 to cover the cost of production and attendance. In the 

 main, the pickers are women and children drawn from 

 the poorer classes of the large towns, but the arrange- 

 ments for their housing and feeding are now so good 

 that a much more respectable class is drawn upon, and 

 many people who are in nowise dependent upon casual 

 earnings take their summer holiday in the open air 

 raspberry picking. The conditions are not unlike those 

 of hop picking, but the business is far more highly 

 organized by the establishment of the dormitory system 

 and the provision of meals. Of course, hop picking is 

 of very long standing, and has grown up slowly along 

 traditional and somewhat haphazard lines. The novelty 

 of the raspberry gathering, its longer duration, and the 

 severer climate call for a more elaborate organization. 

 The Blairgowrie raspberries go chiefly for preserving ; 

 a small proportion are sold for table fruit, but the bulk 

 is packed straightaway into half-hundredweight barrels 

 for the jam factories. At intervals along the side of 

 the road platforms are erected with a weighing machine. 

 A foreman weighs the pickers' buckets as they come in, 

 and pays in cash at the rate of a halfpenny per pound ; 

 he empties the buckets into the barrels, which later in 

 the day are collected by a service of motor lorries. 

 Each grower is afterwards credited with his produce at 

 the current rates. 



For a time the raspberry has been extremely pro- 

 fitable ; very large crops can be grown, four tons an acre 

 were spoken of as common, and prices were up to 30 

 a ton, but in 1908 and 1909 they fell to something 

 like 10 a. ton, and though they, in 1910, recovered a 

 good deal, it is questionable if the supply is not be- 

 ginning to be in excess. Moreover, it is by no means 



