52 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 

 V. MANAGING PICKERS 



The management of pickers sometimes becomes a 

 serious and complicated problem, particularly in han- 

 dling such fruits as strawberries, cranberries, etc. In 

 neighborhoods where fruit is grown extensively these 

 methods have been pretty well worked out, and in 

 many instances have become matters of custom. There 

 are many schemes in use, but they may all be reduced 

 to three general forms, somewhat as follows : 



I . The day-book system. — In following this 

 method, the poorest one of all, the proprietor, over- 

 seer, or foreman merely keeps a memorandum in his 

 day-book, showing what each picker has done. Kach 

 picker's name is written at the top of the page, and 

 the successive days' pickings are entered below. A 

 record then takes some such simple form as this : 



SARAH FORBES 



May 20 15 quarts 



21 21 



23 35 



24 30 



25 40 



26 17 



158 quarts 



Where less than a dozen pickers are employed, 

 where the same pickers return day after day, and 

 where payment is made as often as once a week, this 

 system may be satisfactory. Pickers are always prone 

 to be dissatisfied with the account kept by the fore- 

 man, however, so that some system which throws the 

 responsibility for errors more upon the picker himself, 



