228 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



marketing his fruit in his county seat for a good price while his neigh 

 bor could hardly dispose of his plums at any price. One man was careful 

 in picking and grading his fruit, throwing out all imperfect and over- 

 ripe plums and put them up in a neat, attractive way, while the other 

 took them as they came in from picking and threw them in his wagon on 

 some hay which was thoroughly mixed with them before reaching 

 town. 



Apples are handled about the same as the fruits already mentioned. 

 In the first place very few apples in Nebraska are sprayed and are usu- 

 ally wormy and scabby, which spoils the quality and appearance of the 

 fruit. Then when picking time comes windfalls and all are thrown to- 

 gether and either put in sacks or thrown loose in the wagon box and 

 hauled to market. Often when the tiees bear a crop of choice apples 

 that would bring a good price on the market if carefully picked and 

 graded, they are shaken off and bruisfed, which greatly hinders their 

 sale. 



The appearance of fruit is what sells it. The large, coarse red apple 

 will sell on the open market while right beside it apples of much better 

 quality but less attractive in appearance will lay and rot. So it is with 

 all kinds of fruit. The people want an article that looks well and the 

 appearance seems to more than make up for the lack of quality with a 

 great many people. Fruit of whatever kind should be packed in new, 

 uniformed-sized packages and the fruit sorted and graded as to size, 

 color and ripeness so far as possible, and full measure given. 



There are of course a great many farmers and amateur growers in 

 Nebraska who do not think it pays to buy baskets or boxes specially for 

 a small amount of surplus fruit which they might have. And in some 

 cases it might not pay, but it always pays to grade the fruit and throw 

 out all imperfect specimens. A bushel basket of No. 1 apples will usu- 

 ally sell for more money than two bushel baskets of windfalls, culls and 

 good apples all mixed together. The culls and bruised fruit should be 

 thrown out entirely and the sound fruit sorted and placed in at least 

 two separate packages. The package of No. 1 fruit will sell for the top 

 price and the seconds of course will sell cheaper but if they are mixed 

 in one package they will all sell at the price of seconds. 



PRUXINf: THE OnCHARn. 



The proper time to prune iS' generally conceded to be in early spring 

 just before growth starts. Almost every fruit grower has a system of 

 his own in i)runing and it does not make a great deal of difference 

 what system is followed if certain points are borne in mind when prun- 

 ing. In the first place a limb should never be cut unless there is a good 

 reason for so doing. With some people pruning is a habit and trees are 

 pruned every so often whether they need it or not. On the other hand, 

 many of our home oi-chards are never pruned and the trees grow so com 

 pact and close that limbs interfere with one another, the weaker gradu- 



