The Canadian Horticulturist. 237 



How TO Pay Fruit Pickers. — How do you pay your berry pickers ? 

 The easiest, best, quickest and most satisfactory way to all hands, is by a system 

 of tickets. These tickets are similar to those used by milk peddlers in cities 

 and villages and are made of stiff cardboard an inch and a quarter wide and two 

 inches long. These should be of different colors so as not to get them mixed. 

 Have printed on the tickets of one color your name and the amount which it 

 stands for, as ic, loc, and so on, thus : 



ONE CENT 

 G. S. Fuller. 



TWELVE CENTS 

 Orchard Farm. 



If your picking tray holds eight baskets you should have a lot of 8 and i6c. 

 tickets so as to give one ticket for a full tray. Tickets of the denominations of 

 IC, 4c., 8c., 1 6c. and $1 are found to be all that are needed and make change 

 very readily. The dollar tickets are to change with the pickers at the end of 

 the day's work. These tickets can be cashed with money at night or at the end 

 of the week or season, but the pickers should retain them until they are changed 

 for money. This system saves the keeping of an account with each picker, which 

 takes a long time to write up and always leads to a dispute. Where you keep 

 accounts, pickers often insist that you did not credit them with all they have 

 done, but with this system there is no chance for a dispute, for you pay them 

 in money for only what tickets they present. Many use these tickets and have 

 quarts and pints printed in place of cents, but this is not so satisfactory because 

 a uniform price is not paid all through the season, and for all kinds of berries 

 and small ffuits. — Farm and Home. 



Salicylic Acid.— In a recent study of so-called " Prohibition beverages," 

 which contain not more than one per cent, of alcohol. Prof. C. F. Robinson, of 

 Bowdoin College, has made some interesting discoveries. As a result of them, 

 he cautions the public against indulging in the use of these drinks, assuring 

 them that they are more harmful than beverages of the orthodox kind, con- 

 taining much more alcohol. This arises from the fact that these milder beverages 

 contain salicylic acid, introduced for the purpose of preventing fermentation. 

 This drug, he says, used in any preparation of food or drink acts with dangerous 

 effect on the kidneys and is almost certain to produce Bright's disease. We 

 have previously warned our readers against the use of such preservatives. A salt 

 widely advertised to preserve butter, was shown by analysis to contain this drug. 

 All recipes and powders hawked about the country and sold at fairs, and which 

 are guaranteed to preserve fruit without hermetical sealing and to keep cider per- 

 fectly sweet, are nothing but salicylic acid, and their use has caused thousands of 

 cases of kidney disease. Leave all such preparations in their owner's hands. 

 They are dangerous to health. — Fruit Growers' Journal. 



