?8 StATEl HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



PACKING APPLES WITH MECHANICAL GRADERS. 



MR. MASON, KANSAS CITY, MO. 



I entered tlie field of horticulture at a very young and tender age. 

 My first efforts, from what I can remember, were made when I was 

 about four jears old, when I entered the field as a small but active con- 

 sumer. My activities in that respect have never ceased except for such 

 times when I could not get any fruit to consume. 



The first lesson relating to the industry Avhich was painfully im- 

 pressed on my mind was that green apples produce cholera morbus 

 and that cholera morbus required castor oil, making green apples and 

 castor oil synonymous. 



My first experience as a producer came as soon as I was big enough 

 to handle a hoe and the backache acquired has made the idea of straw- 

 berry culture very distasteful to me ever since. 



I am reciting these incidents to show that I have traveled the usual 

 rough road which all good fruit growers must traverse. 



1 now have a good (accent on the good) orchard at Hickman Mills, 

 Missouri, just south of Kansas City, comprising some 1,500 trees 20 

 years old. There are 250 Jonathan and 1,250 Gano. I acquired the 

 orchard in 1911 and packed the crop that year by means of a common 

 table moved along through the orchard to keep up with the pickers, 

 who delivered their fruit direct to the table. One year of this proved 

 a |)lenty. I found I was only getting one-half the efficiency of the 

 jjickers, as one-half their time was taken up in delivering the fruit to 

 the table. We picked four rows at a time and would strip about forty 

 trees to each stand made with the table. The No. 1 fruit was selected 

 by hand and the ]^o. 2 allowed to run off the end of the table, from 

 which place it was hauled to the cars and sold as bulk. 



While this method of packing is still very much used, it is without 

 d<mbt the most expensive and unsatisfactory method possible. In addi- 

 tion to the loss of time of the pickers, amounting to not less than 50%, 

 the loss of time in moving the table and re-establishing it in a new place 

 was no small item. In addition, consider the disagreeable features of 

 exposure to rains which wet everything, including barrels, making them 

 hard to handle. 



This season of 1912 I had practically a full crop and with the experi- 

 ence of the previous season still fresh in my mind, I built a. packing 

 shed 32 x 34 feet with room for empty barrel storage above. That year 

 I hauled the apples to the shed, using bushel folding crates which nest 

 together conveniently for handling. We picked four rows of trees at 

 a time, distributing the empty crates along both center rows. The 

 pickers used picking sacks holding nearly a bushel which discharge 

 from the bottom and they did not have to go to exceed one tree row to 

 dispose of their fruit. 



At the shed we used the same packing table used in the orchard the 

 previous season. My records of cost for 1911 are not complete, but from 



