Page 28 



BETTER FRUIT 



Picking and Handling Fruit in the Orchard 



By C. B. Woods, Formerly Horticultural Inspector in Washington 



A FEW brief statements on picking 

 and handling fruit in the orchard 

 should be of interest and value to 

 growers. 



In the first place growers should 

 be equipped with good picking lad- 

 ders for each picker. Climbing into 

 the trees is a bad practice and should 

 not be permitted as many fruit spurs 

 are broken off in this way and 

 branches scarred, making splendid 

 quarters for insects, especially woolly 

 aphis. Oftentimes the weight of a 

 person bends the limbs down so much 

 that the cambium breaks and the 

 branches remain drooping instead of 

 swinging back in place when relieved 

 of their burden of fruit. Many 

 branches are broken down entirely 

 under the weight of a picker, hurting 

 the shape of the tree. If a tree is 

 properly trained, ladders can be 

 placed so as to enable one to pick the 

 entire crop without any trouble. A 

 large part of the crop can be picked 

 from the ground in most cases. How- 

 ever, a picker should not be allowed 

 to pull down on the branches as this 

 may result in as much damage as 

 climbing. 



Picking bags have not been a suc- 

 cess for when filled with fruit they 

 are subject to many bumps, each 

 bump causing a loss of a dozen or 

 more apples by bruising. Many times 

 it is necessary to cull out from 50 to 

 60 per cent of a crop because of 

 bruises and this means a big loss to 

 the grower. A picking bucket has 

 given much better results and saves a 

 lot of fruit. 



Every fruitgrower is anxious to 

 realize as much as possible from his 

 orchard. To do this he must give the 

 trees a great deal of care and atten- 

 tion. In picking the fruit, do not 

 take off all the fruit spurs as well, 

 even though you may intend to sell 

 your orchard soon after harvest for 

 the new owner will be just as anxious 

 to harvest good sized crops from these 

 same trees. "A sheep shearer doesn't 

 skin the sheep just to get the wool," 

 though I dare say some of them are 

 almost as bad as some apple pickers. 

 Often a trunk full of spurs is found 

 scattered under a tree after a day's 

 run and it takes from three to four 

 years to grow a good sturdy spur. In 

 picking take the apple in the palm of 

 the hand, not letting the tips of the 

 fingers touch the fruit. Don't pull, 

 but simply lift and turn the back of 

 the hand toward the spur just a little 

 and the apple is yours. It is much 

 quicker and easier to do it this way 



HOOD RIVER FAIR 

 Sept. 17 and 18 



Fruits, Vegetables, Flowers, Livestock, 



Grains, Trucks, Tractors, Machinery, 



Automobiles, Art, Amusements. 



and means better crops in the future. 



All wheel conveyances should by 

 all means be equipped with good 

 springs for fruit hauling. All irri- 

 gated fields should have roads run 

 through them with a spring tooth har- 

 row or an orchard cultivator just be- 

 fore picking time. This will help to 

 cut down your cull pile to a great 

 extent. 



Care should be taken not to make 

 boxes too full and then setting other 

 boxes on top of them. This will not 

 only bruise a few apples on top, but 

 will hurt practically all the apples in 



September, 1920 



the box. Apples which have just been 

 picked should not be left in the or- 

 chard exposed to the sun as they will 

 sunburn quickly and this hurts their 

 keeping quality. If there is no shelter 

 in the orchard, get them out of the 

 fields as fast as possible and place 

 them in your packing house. Stock 

 the fruit in such a way that it will 

 have a good circulation of air. See 

 to it that you have ample ventilation 

 and give the place plenty of cool 

 night air. 



Take care of the culls as fast as 

 they accumulate as the worms are 

 leaving the apples at this time in 

 search of winter quarters and the 

 packing house is usually good life in- 

 surance for them. 



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Write us your belting trouble. We maintain a De- 

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519 Mission Street 

 San Francisco 



Home Office 



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