266 Airi^^UAL BEPORT 



the tree when lifted upward. Winter apples should be allowed to 

 remain upon the trees as long as vegetation is active, or until there 

 is danger of frosts. The only proper mode of gathering is by band 

 picking, in which a folding or step ladder is a great convenience. 

 The branch to be gathered should be taken in one hand and the 

 fruit carefully picked off one at a time, with their stems attached 

 with the other. They should then be carefully laid in shallow 

 baskets, the bottoms covered with paper to prevent bruises, and 

 fruit should only be gathered in dry weather after the dew is off. 

 Summer varieties, after picking, should be carried into a cool, dry 

 room, and placed in thin layers upon shelves or tables, or, if for 

 market, should be carefully placed in market baskets, or boxes, 

 one by one in layers, so assorted that they are uniform in size and 

 appearance, without any small, specked or knotty specimens in the 

 middle or bottom of the package, but uniform throughout, and 

 sent to market in spring wagons, or by steamboat or railroad. 

 If boxes are used, they are better to have a bale to handle them by, 

 and should not hold more than one bushel each, and if the varie- 

 ties are choice, it will pay to wrap each specimen in soft papers, as 

 oranges are packed. It is the practice in Eastern orchards, with 

 winter apples designed for market, to pick by hand and carry into 

 a dry, cool room, where they are laid in heaps three or four feet 

 deep, or sometimes in the orchard to remain a couple of weeks, in 

 which time they sweat and part with considerable moisture, and 

 become quite dry when they are packed in clean, new barrels. 

 They are placed in the barrels carefully arranged in layers, and 

 the barrels tightly headed up, having been filled so that the head 

 presses firmly upon the fruit to prevent shaking about when they 

 are ready for the market. They should never be rolled or jolted in 

 transportation, and it pays to assort and leave out all bruised, 

 wormy or knotty specimens, and keep them for home consumption 

 or the cider mill. For home consumption winter apples should be 

 carefully assorted, keeping the best and the poorest, the sound and 

 the bruised, and the earlier and later ripening varieties all sepa- 

 rate. When all such are thrown together they will quickly decay. 

 They may be put into clean barrels, each barrel marked, or they 

 may be stored in bins in a room where an even, cool temperature 

 can be maintained; in any case they should be kept at as low 

 a temperature as possible without freezing. A cool, dry cellar is as 

 good a place as any after winter has partly set in. 



