l62 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



labor is available it is also found to be very satis- 

 factory. Near manufacturing centers women and 

 girls can usually be employed, and v^hen the proper 

 ones are found, they make very good pickers. In 

 most districts, however, the picking gang is mis- 

 cellaneous and nondescript in the extreme. In gen- 

 eral the workers receive their wages by the day. 

 These wages will vary with the locality, running 

 from 75 cents to $2 a day or even more. In most 

 large orchard enterprises pickers are paid by the 

 basket. Where half-bushel baskets are used for 

 picking the wages are from two to five cents a 

 basket. 



SORTING 



As soon as the fruit is picked it must be carried to 

 the packing house. For this purpose nothing is bet- 

 ter than the regulation fruit wagon as made by sev- 

 eral manufacturers. This wagon has good springs, 

 and broad flat bed on which the fruit baskets are 

 piled. 



A convenient packing house centrally located is 

 of great importance in handling a peach crop. Its 

 arrangement is a problem upon which the fruit 

 grower can well spend considerable thought and 

 some money. A small packing house should be ar- 

 ranged to receive the fruit at one side ; to handle it, 

 sort it and pack it near the center of the house; and 

 pass it out to wagons or cars on the opposite side. 

 A large packing house should be arranged to re- 

 ceive the fruit from two sides if not three, to have 

 it sorted in two ranges of sorting tables and deliv- 

 ered to a center aisle. The fruit should then be in- 

 spected and passed along the center aisle to the end 

 of the house from which it is handed directly into 

 the cars. 



