state; pomologicai. society. 89 



use to tell them to sort them as they pick them. And then very 

 often it has been, as it was this year, nip and tuck to see which 

 would get there first, the frost or we. And in that case you 

 have got to do as you can and not according to theory. We 

 have turned the old fashioned theories of picking apples upside 

 down. When I began to raise apples twenty years ago, they 

 said to always pick them when they were dry; don't put any 

 leaves with them; never touch them when they are frozen. 

 Well, we began by doing as they stated. That will do if you 

 have got time enough. But we found that where we put them 

 in this house a few leaves didn't do any harm. So I told the 

 men to be careful not to pull off the stems but leave the leaves 

 right on and put them in. Then we found we couldn't wait for 

 them to get dry and we picked them in the wet, any time it was 

 suitable for a man to work, whether the apples were wet or not. 

 We picked them that way — took a little pains to set them where 

 there would be a little draft afterwards, or in bins where a little 

 air would draw through and dry them off ; otherwise that is all 

 we have done. When we packed them we didn't find any 

 difference; they were just as good as when picked dry. This 

 year we found it was a question of picking them when they were 

 frozen or not getting them at all, and we picked them frozen. 

 Monday morning we picked them with gloves on and put them 

 in the barrels frozen. This was an experiment, we thought we 

 would try both ways. We took a horse blanket which happened 

 to be the only thing convenient, turned six or eight barrels on 

 to that, Monday morning. They laid there until Friday noon 

 and then we took them up and the frost wasn't all out in the 

 middle of the pile then — so you see they were frozen pretty bad 

 — apples all right — once in a while a little mark but nothing that 

 harmed the apples at all. So I have no fears of picking apples 

 when they are frozen. We put them into this storehouse, as I 

 say, dry, frozen or any other way to get them there ; and we pack 

 them any time. Sometimes we hold them up to February or 

 March and they have always come out in first-class condition. 

 When the room is once cooled off there is no trouble in keeping 

 it for weeks or even months. It is my opinion, although I have 

 never had any experience with the cold storage in cities, that we 

 can keep our own apples by putting them in there right from the 



