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The Rural Publishing Co. 
333 W. 30th Street 
New York 
The Rural New-Yorker 
The Business Farmer’s Paper 
Weekly, One Dollar Per Year 
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VoL. LXXVII. NEAV YORK. FEBRUARY 2, lOlS. No. 41(17. 
Picking and Marketing the Cherry Crop 
How Wisconsin Provides Pickers 
Part I. 
ARI^Y ANXIETIES.—WIioii the cherry boom 
struck Door County, Wis. and a larsre acreaw of 
new orchard was set out in two or tliree year;^. all 
the wise men in the di.strict shook their heads' and 
said: “You’ll never be able to get all tho.se cherries 
picked, and there won’t be any call for them if you 
do pick them.” The growers had enough worries 
with their young trees to keep them from thinking 
about the picking problem until in iniO. when .some 
of the young orchards had their first crop. The 
general crop throughout the district that year was 
rather short, so that there was no trouble getting 
local pickers for tlie entire crop. 
CONTINUOUS PICKING.—In 1017, the early 
Summer months showed that the first big crop was a 
reality and that the growers were face to face with 
a real picking problem. Growers who had picked 
1,200 crates in 1010 could see a 12,000-crate crop on 
their trees, and it made them all hustle to plan for 
the ru.sh work. It is the general i»ractice to .set out 
two varieties of ebonies that have their ripening 
.seasons about two weeks ai)art. and most oi'chards 
have equal numbers of these two varieties, so that 
their season is prolonged. When the weather i.s 
normal one can count on having altout two week.s’ 
time in which to pick each variety, starting in when 
the first fruit is a little under ripe and finishing 
just as the last cherries are getting to the overripe 
stage. This usually makes the season for picking con- 
tinuou.s. although in some years as mucli as a week’s 
time may elap.se before the later cherries are ready. 
Ol^TSIDE LABOR.—There are no nearby large 
cities in this district, so that only a very limited 
number of pickers are furnished locally. These 
local pickers usually do the work in the smaller 
orchards near town, while the larger and newer or¬ 
chards depend on pickers who are brought into the 
district for the season. The pickers brought in from 
outside are usually boy.s. girls and Avomen. The 
boys are cared for by .seA'eral organizations, the tAA'o 
principal ones being the Boy .'^c‘outs and the Y. M. 
C. A. About 2.')0 Y. M. ('. A. boys Avere quartered 
at the local county fair ground.^, using some of the 
exhibit buildings for their dormitories, and haA'ing a 
permanent kitchen and dining hall built there for 
their use. They are in charge of one of the State 
secretaries, and the organization handles all the 
AA’ork of feeding, amusing and caring for the boys. 
A group of growers furnished the kitchen, dining 
hall and cots, and the boys are u.sed in picking the 
fruit f(.»r these growers. About .12 bo.A'S are formed 
into a squad in charge of a boy leader, and these 
squads are assigned to various orchards for their 
day’s work. Each group of pickers has the results 
of its day’s Avork charted, and the rivalry l)etween 
the s(iuads makes for better picking. The boys re¬ 
ceive the standard price for picking, Avhich is a cent 
and a half a quart, but the grower must pay a bonus 
of one-fourth of a cent to the organization to cover 
the overhead expense. The boys are charged 50 cents 
per day for their food. Avith the special incentive of 
a discount of 15 cents per day if they stay until the 
entire crop is picked. A minimum of 50 quarts per 
day, or an earning of 75 cents is re<piired. and the 
aA'erage for the boys is somewhere around SO quarts 
l)er day, or J};1.20. The boys aa'Iio do not have to pay 
out too large a sum for railroad fare manage to go 
home Avith .some money in their pockets, but all of 
them have a good time, and the money is usually the 
least of their Avorries. 
BOY SC'OUTy.—The Boy Scouts have much the 
same system. Last .Acar one large groAver had 150 
Boy Scouts from Chicago, and they Avere fair pickers. 
The Seout organization takes charge of all details of 
management, requiring only dining-hall, kitchen and 
board floors for their tents. They prefer a life in the 
open, and each Scout carries his OAvn bedding, dishes 
and part of a tent. This .Summer canq) feature of 
the Boy Scout AA'ork is financed by philanthropic or¬ 
ganizations, so that the grower has no expense be¬ 
sides furnishing the location for the camp and the 
buildings mentioned above. However, one bad fea¬ 
ture of this system is that the leaders of the boys are 
not primarily interested in the picking of the fruit, 
but are there to supervise their recreational activ¬ 
ities, and so most of the boys do not become very 
proficient pickers. A great impix)vement in their 
Avork Avas noted Avhen the groAver furnished his own 
leaders and supervisors in the orchard, and the 
iScout organization confined its activities to the camp 
life and recreation. One trouble with having organ¬ 
izations furnishing pickers is that they are likely to 
OA'er-emphasize th(‘ fun and good times and neglect 
the work, and when the cherries are ripening faster 
than they can be i»icked it hits the grower hard to 
see the boys tracking off to their daily SAvim at 
two o’clock every afternoon. 
CAMP-FIRE GIRLS.—Another new group of pick¬ 
ers last sea.son was a body of Camp-fire Girls Avith 
their leader. Thei-e were about 25 of them, and they 
occupied a cottage built especially for them They 
took care of their own housekeeping, and Avere prob¬ 
ably the best money-makers of an.v of the groui)s of 
younger pickers. Two girls were in charge of each 
da.A'’.s liouseAvork and cookiiig, and the rest of them 
picked. In that way the expenses of the camp Avere 
kept to a A’ery Ioaa' figure, and the experience and 
camp life aauis a fine thing for the girls. The only 
recreational feature in this camp Avas a sAAim each 
evening, but that counts for a lot after a hot day’s 
Avork. The expense to the groAver for this group 
Avas the cost of the cottage and its furnishings, but 
the success of this group Avas the result of the leader¬ 
ship of the Avonian in charge. 
SCHOOL PICKERS.—('»ne Mihvaukee school teach¬ 
er is heavily interested in a l.-irge planting of cherry 
trees, and he directs the jiieking of the crop each 
Summer. He has brought in groui)s of boys and 
girls from IMihvaukee. lu-usiiig them in tents and 
feeding them in a remodeled farmhouse in the or¬ 
chard. The pickers are charged Avlth the cost of 
their food. Avhich is about 50 cents a day, and most 
of them earn more than enough to pay for it and 
their railroad fare besides. He does not expect more 
than about 75 per cent of them to make good pickers, 
and so he provides himself Avith a surplus, so that 
he is sure of getting his crc>p picked. SAA’imming, 
picnics and auto rides to other parts of the county 
are inducements held out to stimulate the pickers, 
and the bo.vs and girls seem to enjoy the life very 
much. The one big trouble Avith a group brought in 
from a distance of 150 miles is that the railroad fare 
of almost eats up AA'hatever surplus the.v may 
luxA'e accumulated after paying their board. 
Camp-Fire Girls, Boy Scouts and Y. M. C. A. Boys on a Wisconsin Cherry-Picking Job. Fig. 55 
