108 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



My own preference after iisiug- both is iu favor of the sack. If care 

 is used no more bruising will be done than with the basket and it is far 

 more expeditious. Both hands are at liberty for use in the picking. 

 The sack should not be shifted about and the picker should not be 

 allowed to lean against the rungs of the ladder with tlio filled sack 

 between. The sack should be loAvered into the picking crate so that 

 the apples have no drop in emptying the sack. Pointed ladders are the 

 best for tall trees and less liable to injure the tree or tnrn turtle and 

 npset the picker. 



A packing house is essential if best results are to be obtained, bnt 

 many growers use the canvas covered table in the orchard, picking and 

 ])acking the product from 16 to 36 trees at a sitting and then moving 

 the table to the next center and in this way over the entire orchard. 

 In good Aveather this is not so bad as might seem but at times the 

 sun is very hot, or sudden showers saturate everything and in the late 

 fall the weather is. too cold and frosty for comfort. On the whole, there- 

 fore, a good sized packing house or shed built at a convenient place in 

 or near the orchard is the more desirable method of handling the crop. 

 This building must be large enough to give room for a sorting table 

 3 feet wide by 16 or more feet in length, or better still room for an 

 apple grading machine of best pattern, which will occupy about 8 by 

 20 feet. There should be a space on one side or end of the building for 

 unloading the bushel crates with which all Avell-regulated orchards 

 should be equipped, when they come from the orchard. These crates 

 can be stacked up four or five deep and there should be adequate 

 room for these based on necessities. There should be room for at least 

 a day's supply of apple barrels and a place to cooper them up by driv- 

 ing the hoops and nailing same. There should be enough room to face 

 and fill barrels and head them up and to stack up enough for half a 

 day's hauling ahead. The size of this building will depend upon whether 

 you are barreling 100 barrels per day or 1,000 barrels. For the former 

 a building 28x40 feet will answer very Avell. For the latter amouiTt 

 60 X 100 feet would be none too large. The roof of this building should 

 have skylights in the roof. I build these of ordinary greenhouse sash 

 about 3x6 feet, usually putting in two of these in each building on 

 the north or east side of the roof according to the slope and directly 

 over the sorting end of the table. This will give you light an average 

 of 30 minutes each day and prolong the day's work that much 

 or at least make it possible to do better work on cloudy days and in the 

 evenings. The building should be approachable on all four sides with 

 the wagon and doors either sliding or hinged should oi)en at least ten 

 feet wide for taking apples in and out. For example I have my sheds 

 arranged to take the fruit as it comes from the orchard in to the 

 house on one side of the building. The number one apples go out 

 another door and in case I use a grader the number two goes out an- 

 other side. The cider apples take their own route. The fourlh side 

 is used for suj»]dying empty barrels as needed. Thus you see tlie ne- 

 cessity for getting to all four sides. On the side where the filled barrels 

 are loaded onto the Avagon there should be a raised platform so that 



