The Apple Crop and its Management. 171 



ladder with a wide base, bat with the top end firmly bound to- 

 gether, forming a point to shove up into the tree for support. 



It is well with early apples to go over the tree two or more 

 times and remove the finer and early specimens first ; the lesser 

 and later growth will increase in size rapidly after this thinning 

 out. The fruit should be emptied from the picker on the ground 

 or assorting tables, and carefully assorted at once, in the orchard. 

 No second sorting- should be allowed. Those for market or stor- 

 ing should be put at once into barrels or cases, and be got into 

 some cool place, where they can remain with least change of tem- 

 perature possible. No "sweating" is needed; indeed there is no 

 such thing. Evaporation will not improve the apple, but rather 

 injure it, and condensation of moisture, called sweating, shows a 

 change of temperature not conducive to the keeping of the fruit. 

 If the store room be of an even, low temperature of 15° or less, 

 the fruit will require very little ventilation. 



Storage. An ordinary house cellar, if plastered over head 

 and well ventilated, will do very well for winter storage in a small 

 way; but for commercial purposes we require storage room which, 

 from September 1st until the next June, will hold a temperature 

 of 45° or less, down to 30°. This may be accomplished at con- 

 siderable expense by the use of ice. The fruit dealers of: northern 

 New York are now using houses of 10,000 to 20,000 barrel capac- 

 ity, which are designed to preserve apples and pears for the 

 eastern and southern cities, as well as for foreign exportation. The 

 proportionate expense of a house of one hundred barrel capacity 

 would be much greater, and but few even of our city dealers will 

 venture the expense, unless in connection with a meat and poul- 

 try business. 



A comparatively inexpensive fruit house may be constructed 

 by any farmer, which will enable him to keep all varieties of fall 

 and winter fruit until spring. My plan is as follows : Excavate 

 as for a barn cellar, four feet deep and of the desired size to get 

 the capacity wanted ; build good stone or concrete walls eight 

 feet high and one foot thick, and use the earth taken from the 

 excavation to bank up to the top of the wall on three sides. The 

 north end to be protected by a* lean-to shed, and have here the 



