Children Help With Raspberry Harvest

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28162, 28 December 1956, Page 9

Children Help With Raspberry Harvest

While most people were relaxing on Boxing Day in the most intense heat of this summer, hundreds of young people were bending among raspberry canes on properties close to Christchurch, stripping them of their fruit and earning for themselves a few extra shillings. At every raspberry farm scores of bicycles could be seen propped against the poplar hedges that shelter the canes. The raspberry-picking season, which began early in the month, is how in full swing, but Boxing Day was a comparatively light picking day, for many young people are now on holiday or were drawn away by the other attractions offered. However, at a 24-acre raspberry farm in Withells road. Upper Riccarton. there were 100 pickers in the morning; on a 3j-acre property in Yaldhurst road there were 33 pickers; on a four-acre block in the same road there were 20 pickers: and between 30 and 40 pickers were at work on three acres of black currants in Middleton road. Riccarton. Four hundred pickers are sought on the Withells road farm, and up to 100 are needed to cope with the currants on the Middleton road land. Good Work Appreciated Most of the picters are school.children and the age group most favoured by growers is from about 12 upwards. Because the growers reap the results of a painstaking year’s toil in a few short weeks, and the fruit must be picked when it is ripe, the growers appreciate conscientious, careful. quick work. Some of the amateur pickers paused in the sweltering heat to rest aching backs and to inquire about the finishing

time, but competent juvenile pickers can earn good money. On a Yaldhurst road property, a boy of 14 earned £6 4s 2d last week, and another £4 4s 9d. Weekly earnings of £2 to £3 were common. Where picking is done into punnets, daily pickings of between 60 and 801 b are among the best performances, but on a property in Withells road, where cut-down tins are used to hold the fruit, up to 1001 b a day may be picked by one child. The present rate of payment is generally 4d per lb. One grower said that, at the start of the season, he paid 6d per lb, when the berries were less plentiful. He is now paying the standard rate, but later he will again increase the payment as the season draws to a close. U-ton Yield With between 50 and 100 pickers at work on the Withells road property, about 1J tons of fruit was picked. The busiest day on this farm was last Friday, when there were 328 pickers. Most of this fruit will be made into jam. An another property all of the 9201 b of raspberries picked went out almost as quickly as they were gathered ,to fill local orders. On still another property, berries not sold at the gate are finding their way into the quick-frozen food industiy. The black currants now being harvested in Middleton road will go to Nelson to be made into jam. Pickers of currants, who may spend up to half an hour stripping one bush, earn 5s a case for their trouble, and where they are good pickers and are prepared to stay for the season, this grower offers another Is a case as a bonus. Good pickers may earn up to about 36s a day.