A plank roadway, built on piles, about two feet above the level of the ground, leads from the mainland to the warehouse and other buildings, a distance of more than half a mile.  Several wooden railways diverge from the warehouse to all parts of the marsh, and on them flat cars, propelled by hand, are sent out at intervals during the picking season to bring in the berries from the hands of the pickers.  Each picker is provided with a crate, holding just a bushel, which is kept close at hand.  The berries are first picked into tin pans and pails, and from these emptied into the crates, in which they are carried to the warehouse, where an empty crate is given the picker in exchange for a full one.  Thus equipped and improved, the Sackett marsh is valued at $150,000.  Thirteen thousand barrels have been harvested from this great farm in a single season.  The selling price in the Chicago market varies, in different seasons, from $8 to $16 per barrel.  There are several other marshes of various sizes in the vicinity.

The picking season usually begins about Sept. 1, and from that time until Oct. 1 the marshes swarm with men, women, and children, ranging in age from six to eight years, made up from almost every nationality under the sun.  Bohemians and Poles furnish the majority of the working force, while Germans, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, Danes, negroes, Indians, and Americans contribute to the motley contingent.  They come from every direction and from various distances, some of them traveling a hundred miles or more to secure a few days’ or weeks’ work.  Almost every farmer or woodsman living anywhere in the region of the marshes turns out with his entire family; and the families of all the laboring men and mechanics of the surrounding towns and cities join in the general hegira to the bogs, and help to harvest the fruit.  Those living within a few miles go out in the morning and return home at night, taking their noon-day meal with them, while those from a distance take provisions and bedding with them and camp in the buildings provided for that purpose by the marsh owners, doing their own cooking on the stoves and with the fuel furnished them.

The wages vary from fifty cents to a dollar a bushel, owing to the abundance or scarcity of the fruit.  A good picker will gather from three to four bushels a day where the yield is light, and five to six bushels where it is good.  The most money is made by families numbering from half a dozen to a dozen members.  Every chick and child in such families over six years old is required to turn out and help swell the revenue of the little household, and the frugal father often pockets ten to twenty dollars a day as the fruits of the combined labors.  The pickers wade into the grass, weeds, and vines, however wet with dew or rain, or however deeply flooded underneath, making not the slightest effort to keep even their feet dry, and after an hour’s work in the morning are almost as wet as if they had swum a river.  Many