Dorothea Allison, 1912

My job at present is apple-packing. I rush over the cooking washing etc in the morning — have one of the pickers in to dinner, wash up and go to our own packing house where we have two men, a woman and self packing and making boxes. There until 6 pm I stand picking out apples in sizes, wrapping each apple in paper and placing it symmetrically in the wooden box in which the apples are conveyed to the Prairies, to New York, to England etc. When the light is gone I go home, skim the cream, make supper — or rather late tea, wash up and by then about 9 pm we are so tired we just have a look at the paper (if it is a mail day and there is a paper) and go to bed. I am still a novice at the packing work — but I can do about 350 lbs of apples in an afternoon. We have a much larger crop this year which makes heavy work but I hope will fill the pockets better! Labour is so scarce — nearly all our unmarried men have gone and some married ones. We are paying an American boy of 16 years old twelve shillings a day to nail up apple boxes. However we must pay for the war in some way and this is a small price compared to the people who are losing their sons!

Excerpt of a letter from Dorothea Allison to her sister, 1916.