Vol. LIX. No. 2640. 
BUSINESS ON AN OHIO FRUIT FARM. 
A BUNCH OF PICKERS. 
How They Are Handled. 
A HARD PROBLEM.—The most serious question 
that confronts the commercial berry grower is the 
procuring of a sufficient number of pickers to take 
care of the ripe fruit without waste. In this particu¬ 
lar we are most fortunate, to say the least. Located 
in a thickly-settled community and near three small 
villages, we have never yet lacked sufficient help to 
handle our crop in excellent condition by picking six 
days in the week. It is the general impression that 
successfully to carry on commercial growing the 
fruit must be picked on Sunday in order to save it. 
We have never yet brok¬ 
en the Sabbath in 
this way, neither have 
we lost any fruit by not 
picking them, and we 
feel that we have just as 
much money for our crop 
as our friends who think 
that they certainly would 
go to destruction if they 
did not pick Sundays. 
We employ 50 to 150 pick¬ 
ers during our entire 
season, which lasts from 
about May 15 to August 
15. We plan our plant¬ 
ing so as to have ripe 
fruit all the time from 
beginning of the season 
until the end, so there is 
no vacation from the 
time we begin in May 
until the wind-up in 
August. Many of our 
pickers come from the 
country; some coming as 
far as five and six miles, 
however, the majority 
come from out of town, 
New Carlisle, at which 
point we meet them 
every morning at 6 
o’clock with one one or 
more road wagons with 
hay ladders and haul 
them to the fruit farms. 
As the wagons pass along 
the road they pick up 
many others, who are 
waiting, and by the time 
we reach the farm the 
horses have all they can 
pull and the wagons 
Crowded as shown in the 
picture, Fig. 204. In sev¬ 
eral cases we have entire 
families of five to seven in number who come in their 
own conveyance. In fact it is hard to tell how they 
all come, and where they come from. 
WHAT IT MEANS.—Berry picking to these people 
means a great deal. The talk of it from one 
season to another. To the girls it means new 
dresses and hats and shoes and ribbons; to the boys 
new clothes and spending money; to the older ones it 
means flour and meat and wood, and to all it means 
a pleasant and happy time. We pay to these people 
many dollars annually. The majority of them could 
earn money no other way; many are mere children; 
some are too old and broken to do a day’s work at 
regular wages. Many are school girls, who would not 
think of going Into a farmer’s kitchen to work—In 
NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 1, 1900. 
fact no one is above picking berries “out at Scarff’ts.” 
We often have ladies from the churches come out 
and pick berries to earn “their dollar” for some good 
cause. However, our rules are alike to all; we treat 
the poorest little urchin in the gang just aJs well, and 
he has just as much privilege as anyone among us. 
The illustrations, Figs. 204 and 205, show fully 
one-half girls, many of whom are high school gradu¬ 
ates—others are juniors and seniors in the high 
school. All are respectable, industrious and of good 
families. The majority of them are church members; 
all attend Sabbath school. The women and girls as a 
rule are the best pickers, although we have many 
boys from 12 to 16 years, as well as the men, who do 
excellent work. The boys are harder to control while 
A BIG LOAD OF OHIO BERRY PICKERS Fig. 204. 
at work than the girls. They are noisy and always 
watching for a chance to have fun. They delight in 
stirring up a bumble-bee nest or throwing a snake 
into a crowd of girls, or running over the fruit after 
a rabbit or a bird; any thing to have fun, and get out 
of work. At noon the girts will gather in small 
groups and quietly eat their dinner, chatting pleas¬ 
antly with each other, while the boys can hardly be 
quiet long enough to eat; with a piece of bread and 
meat yet in their hands they begin to wrestle, climb, 
box, fight, tease the girls and have a good time gen¬ 
erally. 
PERFECT SYSTEM—We have three fruit farms 
that we run independently of each other. The illus¬ 
trations are from what we call the Hill Farm, al¬ 
ii PER YEAR 
though each of the other places iis- run exactly in line 
with this, and connected by telephone to the Home 
Farm and office. Each farm has its gang of pickers, 
a “field boss,” two packers and one to give tickets. 
We find we can do better work in this way than to 
combine our forces, as 75 pickers are about as many 
as one man can manage in the field without con¬ 
fusion. This number also keeps one handing tickets 
and inspecting the fruit as brought in and two pack¬ 
ers busy crating and nailing up. The “field boss” as¬ 
signs the rows, giving one to two picker's, who work 
as partners through the day. He also sees that the 
fruit is picked clean, that no rows are skipped, that 
no soft, small, or inferior fruit ite thrown in the 
quarts, keeps order, and keeps the pickers at work. 
The accounts are all kept 
with tickets, which are 
handed to each one as he 
comes in with his tray 
full of fruit to the pack¬ 
ing house. The ticket 
given shows the number 
of quarts brought in. 
This ends all accounts. 
The pickers are respon¬ 
sible for the loss of their 
tickets and are paid only 
for the number they 
bring in on pay day. 
This is the simplest and 
most satisfactory of any 
system, as it is less 
trouble, and it is accur¬ 
ate beyond question. 
Each one keeps his 
own account, which he 
cannot keep any way but 
correct. The tickets bear 
our name, and are of as 
many different colors as 
there are numbers, so 
they can be counted 
readily. We pay one cent 
per quart for picking 
strawberries, blackber¬ 
ries, dewberries and cher¬ 
ries; 1% cent per quart 
for raspberries, currants 
and gooseberries. Our 
best pickers make on an 
average $1 per day— 
while some do not make 
over 25 cents per day. 
The range of price is due 
largely to the age of the 
pickers, as many are 
mere children not over 10 
or 12 years old, who 
would not be able to earn 
anything at other work. 
In our very best picking 
we have had some few make $2.50 per day. Each 
one is paid according to the amount of work he does, 
and it is in this as in all other work; some will do 
as much again as others with equal chances. 
LIVELY TIMES.—The principle by which we man¬ 
age our pickers is certainly beneficial to the boys 
and girls in our employ. They must first learn to do 
their work carefully; to do it neatly, they must do it 
promptly and, most important of all, they have in¬ 
stilled into them the fact that they receive pay in 
exact proportion to the amount of work they do, 
that industry, push and perseverance bring certain 
and sure reward. Our farms are equally distant (12 
miles) from Dayton and Springfield, where we find 
market for the greater part of our crop, which we 
OHIO BERRY PICKERS AFTER DINNER. Fig. 205. 
