1442 
Iht  RURAL  NEW. YORKER 
November  24,  1923 
The  Fern  Industry  in  a  Vermont  Valley 
RECOGNIZED  INDUSTRY.— The  fern  in¬ 
dustry  of  West  River  Valley  has  been  at¬ 
tracting  nearly  as  much  attention  as  its 
beautiful  scenery,  and  the  daily  papers 
have  been  busy  writing  us  up.  They 
learned  much  of  the  industry  for  so  short 
>ut  they  reminded  us  of  one  man’s  expres¬ 
sion  :  “It’s  surprising  how  much  some  folks  know 
that  ain’t  so.”  Ferns  have  been  picked  commer¬ 
cially  in  our  vicinity  for  about  25  yeai’s.  I  cannot 
give  the  exact  date,  but  23  years  ago,  a  neighbor 
wrote  me  (I  was  away  teaching  then)  that  she 
had  earned  over  $17  that  Fall  picking  ferns.  At 
that  time  she  received  a  cent  a  bunch  and  shipped 
her  own  ferns. 
PRICES  AND  VARIETIES.— About  the  same 
time  an  old  gentleman  came  to  Stratton  buying  the 
tx-ee  evergreen  or  running  pine,  and  also  hired  a  few 
to  pick  ferns,  paying  a  half  cent,  then  three-fourths 
cent  a  bunch.  The  price  started  this  year  at  1% 
cents  per  bunch,  but  competition  in  two  weeks  x’aised 
the  price  to  2%  cents  and  now  three  cents  per 
and  soft  wood  timber,  or  even  in  pine  woods,  and 
is  found  in  drier,  rockier  woods.  These  ferns  must 
be  10  in.  or  more  long. 
THE  PICKERS.— Let  us  go  out  and  help  pick. 
We  will  first  put  up  a  big  knapsack  of  lunch  and 
plenty  of  water,  get  into  the  car  and  drive  8,  10,  or 
12  miles.  The  men  shoulder  the  lunch,  the  smaller 
boy  takes  the  “stretcher,”  a  bran  sack  with  a  pole 
oji  each  side  to  bring  out  ferns  on.  Back  we  go,  a 
half  mile  or  moi’e  on  the  hill.  The  air  is  crisp  and 
the  woods  delightful.  The  men  cari’y  spools  of 
coarse  white  thi-ead  in  their  right  front  pocket.  I 
put  mine  in  my  dress  pocket,  the  lady  without 
pockets  runs  a  cord  through  her  spool  and  ties  it 
around  her  waist.  Now  begin  to  pick,  don’t  put 
both  varieties  of  ferns  in  one  bunch.  We  will  try 
lace  first,  as  they  bunch  better,  the  daggers  being 
smooth,  slip  and  “fan  out.”  Don’t  pick  that  fern, 
3  in.  of  the  fern  tip  must  be  perfect.  That  is  bi-oken, 
and  the  worms  have  eaten  the  next  tip  until  it  is 
ruined,  and  that  next  clump  grew  where  the  shade 
is  thin  and  the  ferns  are  yellow.  Fenis  are  for 
PACKING  IN  CRATES.— Here  we  are  at  the 
packei-’s.  The  buyer  counts  them  over,  and  pays 
for  them,  then  his  helpers  begin  crating.  The  ci-ates 
are  30  in.  square.  They  are  first  lined  with  paper 
usually,  then  a  layer  of  sphagnum  moss,  then  layei’s 
of  ferns,  moss,  paper,  and  the  top  nailed  on.  These 
crates  are  made  mostly  of  poplar,  as  that  is  our 
cheapest  timber,  but  hemlock  and  spnice  are  also 
used.  The  buyer  has  paid  60  cents  per  crate,  and 
in  the  best  part  of  the  season,  a  hundred  or  more 
ci’ates  have  gone  in  a  day ;  60  or  80  crates  is  not 
unusual  and  three  auto  trucks  are  used  many  days. 
So  the  money  spent  for  crates  lieip  many  and 
furnishes  work  for  several  men.  From  5  P.  M.  till 
12  midnight  is  the  packers’  busy  time;  some  work 
neai’ly  all  night.  One  buyer  avei’aged  to  pay  out 
$500  a  day  for  a  week  or  more,  and  has  paid  out 
over  $30,000  this  season  in  our  town.  This  year  the 
season  began  the  middle  of  July,  and  ended  Novem¬ 
ber  1,  as  the  pickers  do  not  like  to  be  in  the  woods 
in  deer  season. 
FURTHER  DETAILS. — Fern  picking  is  of  course 
“I’m  All  Ready  for  My  Picture .”  Photo  by  W.  C.  Scott,  Johnson  City,  N.  Y. 
bunch  for  lace  ferns.  And  the  number  of  pickers 
has  increased  from  three  or  four,  to  as  many  hun¬ 
dred  pickers.  Many  have  an  idea  all  ferns  are  com¬ 
mercial  ferns  but  only  two  varieties  are  used  by 
florists,  the  lace  or  fancy  fern  and  the  dagger  or 
Boston  fern.  Both  ferns  are  evergreen,  frost  hav¬ 
ing  no  effect  on  them,  but  they  stand  bright  and 
green  in  the  first  snow,  and  are  still  fresh  when  the 
snow  leaves  in  Spring. 
THE  LACE  FERN  is  hard  to  desci’ibe,  but  is  a 
finely  cut  fern,  much  like  the  common  “pasture 
brakes.”  The  buyers  require  these  ferns  to  be  12 
in.  long,  but  they  often  grow  18  to  20  in.  long  and 
are  usually  found  in  hard  woods  in  moist  ravines 
on  the  sides  of  the  hills  and  mountains.  Stratton 
Mountain  is  covered  with  these  fancy  or  lace  ferns, 
and  many  camp  on  the  mountain  picking  the  whole 
season,  auto  trucks  going  after  the  ferns  daily  in 
warm  weather,  then  less  often  as  cooler  nights  come. 
Ferns  must  not  be  left  long  in  crates  in  hot  weather, 
because  they  will  heat,  but  must  be  hustled  into  the 
cold  storage  plant  in  Springfield.  Ferns  picked  to¬ 
day  will  be  in  cold  storage  tomorrow  morning,  that 
is  in  hot  weather. 
DAGGER  FERNS. — The  name  Boston  fern  de¬ 
scribes  this  variety  and  nearly  everyone  knows  the 
house  plant  known  as  Boston  fern.  The  wild  Bos¬ 
ton  or  dagger  feni  is  a  thick,  glossy,  dark  green 
frond,  and  is  usually  found  in  mixed  woods  of  bal’d 
decoration,  you  know,  and  so  everything  won’t  “go 
only  the  dark  green  are  wanted. 
BUNCHING. — Now  try  to  keep  the  bottom  of 
fi-onds  even,  so  the  stems  form  a  good  “handle.” 
Now  there  are  25;  the  ferns  are  held  in  the  left 
hand,  either  clip  or  break  the  stems  about  2  in. 
long  from  base  of  fei’n.  Draw  the  thread  with  your 
right  hand  up  between  these  stems,  begin  at  base 
of  frond,  wind  spirally  to  end  of  stem,  draw  tightly 
every  time,  draw  up  between  stems  and  snap  off 
thread.  It  will  cut  your  fingers  at  first,  but  you 
will  soon  get  the  knack.  Fred’s  fastest  picking 
this  year  was  51  bunches  in  5S  minutes.  He  is  a 
good  picker,  but  there  are  faster  ones  so  you  see  it 
pays  to  keep  trying.  Daggei’s  ai*e  handled  the  same ; 
they  are  usually  darker  colored  and  are  not  eaten 
by  worms  as  badly,  but  there  are  many  spore-bear¬ 
ing  fi-onds  with  imperfect  tips  and  heavily  coated 
with  brown  on  the  backs.  Hold  these  ferns  tightly 
or  they  will  spread  out.  Hold  this  bunch  tightly  but 
carefully  under  your  left  ai-m  and  pick  another;  a 
picker  usually  carries  his  ferns  till  he  has  8  or  10 
bunches,  then  lays  them  on  a  large  boulder  or 
stump  or  the  foot  of  some  easily  distinguished  tree. 
At  noon  thei’e  is  a  halt  for  lunch.  Our  folks  quit 
picking  ferns  at  4  P.  M.,  and  bringing  their  ferns 
to  the  stretcher,  a  layer  is  laid  on  each  side  of  the 
stretcher,  butts  out,  tips  in.  They  can  carry  out 
400  or  500  bunches  on  it. 
something  of  a  gamble,  for  you  may  tramp  all  day 
and  find  but  a  few  bunches,  and  then  have  un¬ 
usually  good  luck  the  next  day.  One  man  and  son 
have  been  picking  most  of  the  time  and  say  they 
have  averaged  300  bunches  a  day.  That  is  probably 
an  average  picker’s  experience.  Then  the  gathering 
of  the  sphagnum  moss  takes  more  money.  There  is 
a  large  bed  of  it  about  nine  miles  from  the  packer’s, 
so  it  takes  time  to  make  the  trip.  The  moss  is 
pulled  with  potato  hooks,  thrown  in  baskets  and 
carried  to  wagon  or  auto  truck.  Two  men  can  pull 
a  ton  in  about  an  hour  and  a  half.  This  ends  the 
fern  story  for  us,  but  later  these  ferns  are  brought 
out  of  cold  storage,  soiled  as  to  size  and  quality 
and  ai’e  sent  everywhere;  New  Orleans  and  the 
Southwest  has  furnished  a  good  market,  as  well  as 
all  our  nearby  cities,  and  formerly  I  am  told  many 
went  to  Paris.  mother  bee. 
Why  Should  We  Eat  Apples  ? 
BECAUSE  they  are  good  to  eat.  When  it  comes 
to  splitting  this  opinion  of  practically  every  nor¬ 
mal  human  being  who  has  ever  had  a  chance  at  a  good 
one  into  special  reasons,  we  must  admit  lai’ge 
empty  spots  in  our  knowledge.  The  best  analysis 
we  can  make  shows  quite  a  little  water,  some  sugar, 
some  more  or  less  digestible  bodies  related  to  the 
starches  and  sugars,  an  acid  and  a  little  flavoi’, 
