"2,000 Imported to Finish Harvest — 1,500 Jamaicans, 500 Mexicans Now in County, Report" from the August 4, 1944 Door County Advocate
2,000 Imported to Finish Harvest
1,500 Jamaicans, 500 Mexicans Now in County, Report
Picking Half Done, Expected to Last to About Aug. 19
What is said by War Food Administration officials as being the largest number of imported agricultural workers ever assigned to any county in the nation at one time was realized here this week when the number of Jamaicans and Barbadians was swelled to 1,500 and the comparatively few Mexicans was increased to 500, making a grand total of 2,000 imported persons.
Three hundred fifty of the Mexican nationals came in Monday night by special train, while the Jamaicans have been pouring in by bus.
Originally having planned on only 1,100 West Indies workers, County Agent G. I. Mullendore, his labor assistant, Martin Mathey, and the state extension officials, headed here by B. F. Rusy, had some quick work to do in finding quarters for the extra pickers. Considerable shifting around had to be done by growers, pickers from some camps going to fill the ranks of others so that the imported workers could have camps to themselves. The newcomers were scattered over the entire peninsula.
Picking Half Done
The advent of the foreign workers came just as the harvest was about half done, but there's a long second half left, estimated to end about August 19.
Some small growers who had. the advantage of their own camps, even though limited, are even showing that as far as the harvest is concerned, it's over the hump. From now on, it will be increasingly a matter of passing pickers on to orchards that are shorthanded.
The big question now is cannery help.
"Judging by deliveries, there are plenty of pickers," commented Kurt Stock, head of the Fruit Growers' Co-Op. "Any complaints about not enough pickers are due to an uneven distribution of the supply."
Last week when the number of quits among regularly recruited pickers was faster than replacements, it was thought that it would be necessary to bring in war prisoners, but the supply of Jamaicans and Mexicans was larger than expected, so this step was unnecessary.
Wages are Boosted
By agreement among the growers recently, it was decided to raise the picking pay to 15c. a pail for the first 15 pails and 20c thereafter to encourage faster picking.
Many young pickers who had been content with about enough to pay for their board consequently speeded up to "get the bigger pay, but the better pickers, including the steady imported ones, are I really "making hay." Some of the Jamaicans, for example, have been "hauling in" $11 to $14 a day. Boy scouts at Camp Witte, Fish Creek, have been making the best picking record for native youths, averaging 15.6 pails of earlies and well over 20 on lates.
The crop is the biggest probably in history, but due to the type of weather during the maturing period and also the large number of cherries on the trees, there is a large percentage of small fruit.
Many Cherries in Brine
As a result, the amount of cherries put into brine for maraschinos is the largest in history. The Co-Op, which has always packed its small cherries in brine, had 6,500 barrels filled by Tuesday this week to accommodate the excess, it was necessary to rent the city dock property next to the Sturgeon Bay Boat Works. These cherries are "worked" and then prepared for processing during the winter months.
The demand for cherries is the greatest in history because of a crop failure last year and an armed service demand equal to 100% of all of the cherries hot packed in 1942. Consequently, civilian needs will not be met. Before any hot packs go on grocer's shelves, all of the, armed force order is being stored, ready for delivery.
Special Entertainment
For the first time this year, the state agricultural extension department has been furnishing personnel to give pickers recreation. Last year, it was concerned only with recruiting and placing.
Bruce Carter, W. rural sociologist, spent .two weeks here organizing recreation for many camps, and then turned the program over to Miss Dorothea Steckling, Door county home agent.
Next week, the camps will have a chance to meet "Ranger Mac", state .4-H club leader, whose nature tours over WHA, Madison was voted the best educational program on the air in the United States during 1943.
Mac has away with kids — and with adults, too," comments Miss Steckling, adding that the pickers are in for some fine evening entertainment next week. Last week, Dwight Warner of the State board of health was featured on the camp tour. Besides the outside talent, the extension is showing movies with the use of the Door county projector.
There are eight stops on the circuit, many of the small camps congregating in one spot to make possible reaching all of the pickers who care to attend.
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Night Shift Needed to Save Cherry Crop!
Co-Op Must Have Workers Midnight to 5:00 A.M.
Unable to pack all of the cherries its growers are picking, the Fruit Growers' Co-Op plant in this city issued an appeal Thursday this week for immediate help for this week or 10 days from men and women willing to work a special shift from midnight to 5 a.m.
Unless help can be obtained at once. picking will have to be suspended with the likelihood that a million or so pounds of cherries will become overripe and unfit for use.
The plant's capacity is a million pounds a day: but its present crew has only been able to pack approximately 700,000.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive