Winter Meeting. 209 



weeks past maturity. Instead, he has provided a place to garner 

 his grain in case he does not sell at harvest time. He has provided 

 equipments for taking care of his crop beforehand and is prepared 

 for harvesting his crop at the proper time. Many of our orchard- 

 ists this year, with ten, twenty or forty acres of orchard, yielding 

 several times the revenue per acre more than wheat, made no such 

 preparation ; made no provision for barrels, boxes or labor. Neither 

 provided cellars, stone or concrete buildings, in order that they 

 might safely hold their apples in case they could not sell at satis- 

 factory prices at picking time, and, for want of proper preparation, 

 were at the mercy of the weather, the conditions, the car shortage, 

 the buyer, the cooper, and, as a result, did not realize more than half 

 what he would have done with proper preparation. In this respect, 

 many growers in Missouri do not provide for the handling of their 

 apples like they do in the east. The first important detail to be 

 determined in packing after preparation is made, is the proper time 

 to pick. This can only be rightly determined by giving due consid- 

 eration to the following important factors that must necessarily 

 enter into the successful handling of the crop. First, climatic con- 

 ditions; second, relation to markets; third, available help; fourth, 

 whether packing for storage, im.mediate consumption or export. 

 Apples, like any other fruit, in the process of development may be 

 not quite matured, fully matured and past maturity in a very few 

 days. Of these stages, the last should be most closely guarded 

 against, for if the tissues begin to break down by the process of 

 ripening upon the tree or in the pile before packing, it means that 

 the life of the apple is materially shortened, and in no instance 

 should fruit of this character be packed for storage or export, but 

 for immediate market and consumption only. For storage and 

 export, the fruit should be picked when approaching maturity, 

 when fairly well colored and when just matured. If the crop is 

 large and help limited, better always commence a few days too 

 early than to be a week too late. In Missouri, excessive, continued 

 rains during August and September, with warm, humid tempera- 

 ture, tends to advance fruit rapidly, causing it to mellow early, and 

 its keeping qualities are impaired, as was* the case in some sections 

 this year. As a rule, I would advise that all varieties in our cli- 

 matic conditions should be packed as they are picked from the trees, 

 handling as little as possible. The next detail to determine is what 

 you are going to pack, whether No. 1, No. 2, orchard run or culls. 

 After this is determined and you know what constitutes the differ- 

 ent grades, pack it that way and mark it that way, put you name 



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