;354 Missouri State Horticultural Sociefj/. 



PICKIIfG APPLES 



Is a slow and expensive process. I know many farmers who ha\e 

 shaken fruit from their trees, and barreled only those specimens 

 that escaped bruising in their fall. Some of our fruit growers are 

 very enthusiastic in praise of a device for gathering fruit. It is a 

 stout canvass encircling the tree, and in funnel shape, so that the 

 apples are delivered in piles around the tree on heaps of straw, 

 without danger of being bruised, A bearing orchard of Baldwins 

 or King apples, gathered around the trees, is a beautiful sight. 

 Even for drying purposes the fruit is much better, as apples bruised 

 l)y being shaken oli in the usual manner waste in preparing for the 

 evaporator. The fruit gatherer is patented, and costs more than it 

 should ; but in a large apple orchard it cannot be dispensed with. 

 One large apple grower thinks that he saved in labor with this fruit 

 gatherer an average of nine dollars per day, besides the advantage of 

 getting the fruit harvested earlier and in better condition. — ]V. J. F. 



P-RICES FOR FRUITS. 



The Chicago Tribune is of the opinion that the price of fruit 

 ^vill never be low again in this country. The facilities of trans- ' 

 portation are so abundant, and the foreign demand for evaporated 

 fruit so constant and increasing, that fruit-growing in the United 

 States may be considered established as a paying business " while 

 grass grows and water runs." Thus the production of the standard 

 fruit is an increasing business, and not only seedsmen and nursery- 

 men are profiting from it, but those who give most attention to the 

 orchards, vineyards, berry gardens, etc., find their interests rapidly 

 on the increase. Our railroads carry fruits and their products 

 hundreds of miles, and render possible the cultivation of fiourishing 

 orchards on hitherto isolated hills which were abandoned to the 

 wilderness. Dried fruit is wanted in most foreign countries. 

 • Canned fruit is carried from our great seaports to " the end of the 

 earth," and profitably sold. Many of the European peasants use 

 our Jams instead of butter on their bread. 



Dehydrated or evaporated fruit, better than all other kinds, is 

 of general acceptance wherever offered, and valued equally with 

 the fresh products. AVithin the last ten years the amount of raw 

 fruit brought into England from the United States ,is something- 

 astonishing. In 1871 there were but 56,441 bushels, valued at 

 £40,604 ; but in 1883 there were 1,065,076 received in Great 

 Britain from this country, worth £387,190, or 11,881,734.40. The 

 outlook for the American fruit grower is most favorable, and those 



