PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING. 301 



he a central packing-house somewhere to which all the fruit is collected 

 for packing. I went down into western Maryland this fall and studied 

 their fruit methods there. I found them packing peaches right in the 

 field, down on their hands and knees, packing them in boxes and crates, 

 packing them wherever it was convenient. The bottoms of the packages 

 were dusty and dirty when they went into the car, and they were soiled 

 generally. There should be a central packing-house. 



Then comes the question of picking the fruit to get it there. The ques- 

 tion of how to judge fruit when it is ripe is an important one. No hand 

 should be laid upon a peach until it is ready to come off the tree. Take 

 hold of the limb and look at the under side of the peaches and learn by 

 the shade of color on the under side whether they have come to full 

 maturity If they have, then with a very careful, gentle hand, take them 

 off, not pressing upon them in any way. 



The question of how near maturity you wish your peaches to reach 

 before you pick them, will depend upon the market. If you are just out- 

 side of Grand Rapids, and are going to deliver the fruit early in the morn- 

 ing, you can let it go to full growth and full mellowness on the tree, pick 

 it in the afternoon and get it into town in the morning, and the people 

 will have an almost perfect peach. If you are going to ship it further 

 away, you will pick it when it is full grown but not so mellow. If a peach 

 is fully grown, thoroughly well grown, the under side, if it is a white 

 peach, will take on a pink color instead of green, and if it is a mellow 

 ptach there will be pale lemon instead of green. We take a class of men 

 or pickers and go out with them for two or three hours three or four day§ 

 in advance of the picking, and we study the question of ripe peaches. 

 We keep them observing two or three days until they know what the 

 color is that means a fully-matured peach, and it is important to know 

 that. 



The peaches, w^hen ready for picking, should be placed in a low, open 

 basket that is padded in some way. Just how it shall be padded, is 

 another local question, but a padded basket of some kind, that will not 

 hold too much fruit (twelve quarts is plenty — some say as high as half 

 a bushel, but there should be a smaller quantity, so that there shall be 

 no bruising in picking). There should be careful picking, more careful 

 than you would be with eggs in putting them into a basket, hauling them 

 to the packing-shed in some low, easy spring-wagon, so there shall be no 

 jarring. There you need nicely arranged tables and everything that is 

 convenient and easy for ladies' work. I wish ladies could pick peaches, 

 but it is rather rough work, tramping over the orchard, for girls, 

 although some of them do it. You should have in your packing-shed 

 hidies of culture and taste. You do not want any "mutton-heads" there 

 — of course there are not many mutton-headed women, but there are lots 

 of such men. But you need women who have education and refinement 

 and taste to sort and pack good peaches. No one else can do it and do 

 it well. When I first began trying to pack fancy peaches for a fancy 

 market, I got young men, well brought up, of Christian parentage, good 

 Sunday-school boySj good as boys will average in Connecticut, and I 

 showed them how I wanted them to handle those peaches and how I 

 wanted them to pack them; and, bless their sneaking hearts! they would 

 not do it right, and would get big peaches on top. I told them I did not 



