FORTY-FIFTH ANNUAL REPORT. 109 



the loading can be carefnlly and easily done. A bin for the cider or 

 vinegar apples .should l)e built v.ith a root on same. 



Low wheeled, platform Avagons are needed to haul fruit from the 

 orchard to the packing house. 



The standard barrel of three bu.shels capacity is used generally by 

 the commercial orchardist in preference to the box. Good hoops are 

 growing scarcer every year and some including myself are using two or 

 four of the six hoops required of the twisted splice-steel wire variety as 

 being both safer and more economical. In transit or in storage they 

 hold better and do not break and scatter the contents of the barrel over 

 the car floor or storage warehouse. 



The best floor for the apple house is concrete. The next best is to 

 cover the ground with coal cinders and lay 2x4 flat on the cinders 

 filling between them with cinders to a level and nailing the floor boards 

 to these 2 x i's. This gives a good solid floor at little expense. 



The walls are of 4x4 uprights about eight feet apart resting on 8x 

 8 x 12 concrete blocks with a half-inch iron rod imbedded in the con- 

 crete and countersunk in lower end of upright 4x4 to keep the latter 

 in place. Nail ties of 2x4 are used and to these are nailed common 

 hnnber surfaced. The roof consists of 2x4 or 2x6 rafters usimlly 

 three feet apart with IxG boards spaced about three feet apart as 

 sheeting. The covering in this case is of galvanized corrugated iron 

 suitable length of No. 20 guage. The doors of this building should be 

 on rollers and with two or more double doors on each of the four sides 

 to give plenty of light and easy access to and from the building. The 

 roof and dry floor are the important parts of such a building and you 

 only need the Avails as a .support and occasionally to break oft' the wind 

 when Aveather becomes chilly. What you should avoid in a packing 

 house is narro^^■ doors, dark interior and access from only one or tAVO 

 sides. 



PICKING. 



I have found it most satisfactory to pick by the bushel keeping a 

 foreman in the orchard to see that crates are filled full, ladders and 

 apples carefully handled. Each picker is provided with tickets of a 

 certain number Avhich corresponds to the one o])posite his name on the 

 sheet tacked to a small board or clip carried by the foreman. Each 

 picker is assigned a tree and his empty boxes are distributed to him 

 from the Avagon. When tilled the number is tabulated by the foreman 

 and loaded onto the Avagon and hauled to the packing shed. Here 

 they are stacked up and afterwards emptied onto the sorting tables 

 or machine grader and from thence into the barrels. 



PACKING APPLES. 



The packing season is a busy one. Offer the grower finds himself 

 short of help and AA'hen this is hard to get he is sure n]» against it if 

 he wants to do a good job of packing. 



First make your estimate of the cro]) you have to harvest. If inex- 

 perienced get an experienced man to help you. You need this estimate 

 for two reasons. You must determine the number of packages you 



