3t4 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



colored fruit will show at all openings and not a peach can move; let 

 every package show jast what it contains, however. Covers, when 

 nailed down, should press fruit. Choice or mellow peaches may be 

 pat in eight-pound baskets, with slatted covers, and it is a good plan 

 to put excelsior on top to hold the fruit solid. Compartment boxes, 

 like egg cases, are also used for choice fruit. It is well to stencil the 

 name of variety on package. Do not ship your No. 2 grade of peaches* 



GRAPES. 



Pick when just ripe, never before, nor when too ripe. Protect 

 the bloom as much as possible. Pick in convenient baskets and, at 

 picking place, remove all green and imperfect grapes with scissors. 

 Hold two days before packing, if to be shipped loag distances. Pack 

 early grapes in five-pound baskets, later in nine or ten-pound baskets. 

 Shake down well and fill baskets full. Tnrn stems of top bunches out 

 of sight and have the surface of the baskets smooth. The cover should 

 press the fruit sufficiently to hold it firm. Stencil the variety in each 

 basket on the cover. 



APPLES. 



Pick summer varieties as soon as ripe. Select the best and ship 

 in bushels boxes. See that they are dry and cool before packing. Pick 

 winter apples before fully ripe; they keep better and have better flavor. 

 Be all ready for apple picking and packing by September 1. Ben Davis 

 and some others may even be picked the last day of August. Two 

 pickings of Ben Davis are recommended, about three weeks apart. 

 Never pick apples wet or allow them to get wet. Use baskets for 

 picking, and it is a good plan to line them. A bag slung over the 

 shoulders is good to pick into. Pick only such apples as are intended 

 for shipment; don't hand-pick your culls. Separate your varieties 

 closely. The best fruit is on the topmost branches, and therefore re- 

 quires the most careful picking. Small home-made stepladders will 

 do for most of our Howell county orchards. Picking should be done 

 under a foreman and it is better to hire your pickers by the day. Let 

 each picker chalk his name or number on every box or barrel filled by 

 him, and you can then know how much he does and how he does it. 

 It is better not to pack from the trees for shipment, and the best 

 authorities now advise against piling apples in orchards before pack- 

 ing. Never, and again never, haul shipping apples in a wagon a rod. 

 Peel a few apples which have been hauled thus and held two or three 

 days, and you will find them covered with bruises. The best way is to 

 haul from orchards, loading your wagon with empty shipping barrels, 



