September, 191 



THE CANADIAN HOETICULTURIST 



2l3 



organized, and all the business will be 

 directed by this association. 



PICKING AND PACKING. 



In the matter of picking and packing 

 the fruit there has been a marked im- 

 provement. The up-to-date careful or- 

 chardist will not allow hired help to 

 handle his fruit roughly at any stage of 

 procedure. Ladders long enough to 

 reach to the top of any tree in the or- 

 chard and light enough to rest on the 

 outside of the branches are used. Bas- 

 kets constructed especially for the pur- 

 pose are u.sed for picking. Some of 

 these are made of canvas and some of 

 splints. In either case the rim at the 

 top is placed on the outside so that the 

 apples will not be bruised when the bas- 

 ket is emptied. 



The barrels are filled and the head put 

 in just tight enough to ensure safe de- 

 livery at the fruit house without bruis- 

 ing the fruit. 



The packing is carried on in the fruit 

 house by a gang of men, and in some 

 cases by women, who are employed to 

 do the grading or sorting. These people 

 are under a foreman, whose duty it is 

 to have a general oversight of all that 

 takes place in the fruit house. This 

 staff of help is divided to suit conditions. 

 One .man faces the barrels, another puts 

 the heads in, another nails and brands 

 them. 



The modern fruit house has a room 

 especially for packing. The apples are 

 brought in from the main building and 

 packed and put back into the main build- 

 ing again read for shipment. The ad- 

 vantage in having a separate room is 

 that the help can work comfortably and 

 consequently turn off more work than 

 they could if they were obliged to work 

 in a very cold room. 



The fruit is carefully dumped on a 

 packing table and then the grading be- 

 gins. This table is padded on the bot- 

 tom and sides to prevent bruising the 



apples. These tables vary in capacity 

 from five to ten barrels, and are just 

 high enough to pertnit a person to stand 

 and work comfortably. They are wide 

 enough to allow the apples to be easily 

 reached by the people who do the sort- 

 mg. As each basket is emptied the bar- 

 rel is carefully shaken, and when level 

 full a false head, padded, is put on and 

 the barrel well racked down. This gives 

 room for a layer of apples to be put. on 

 or in other words, the barrel is tailed 

 up before the head is put in. 



Care is taken in nailing the barrels. 



The bilge hoops require small nails, and 

 if these go through the staves they are 

 clinchted on .the inside. 'Barrels are 

 nailed before they are filled. Liners are 

 used for the heads, the same as are used 

 for flour barrels, only enough nails are 

 driven in to the hoop to hold it in its 

 place. MORE BOX packing 



Box packing is on the increase. A 

 few orchardists are packing their high- 

 class and more tender apples in boxes, 

 and find that it pays, as the increased 

 prices realized more than overbalance 

 the cost and labor of packing in boxes. 



Floral Notes for September 



Wm. Hunt, O.A.C., Guelph, Ont. 



THE first light autumn frosts that 

 usually make their appearance 

 about the first or second week in 

 September, are but the heralds that warn 

 the plant lover to prepare for the heavier 

 and more damaging frosts of later aut- 

 umn. It is well to make sure of any 

 very tender plants out of doors by plac- 

 ing them in safe temporary quarters be- 

 fore the appearance of even the early 

 light frosts mentioned. 



Cuttings of plants such as coleus. ire- 

 sine, ageratum, salvia, lobelia and hel- 

 iotrope should be taken before the nights 

 get chilly and cold. Cuttings of geran- 

 iums can usually be left a week or two 

 later. Even these, however, are better 

 when taken as early in September as 

 possible, so as to get good root devel- 

 opment before cold weather sets in. 



Sharp, clean pit or lake sand is the 

 best material to root cuttings in. Good 

 drainage is also very essential to be suc- 

 cessful. A temperature of from sixty- 

 five to seventy-five degrees with partial 

 shade from hot sun are good conditions 

 for rooting cuttings in. A window fac- 

 ing the east or west is better than a 

 window facing directly south, unless the 



cuttings in the last named are shaded 

 from the hot sun at noon day. 



Petunias, these popular summer bor- 

 der plants, make splendid pot plants for 

 the window in winter, if managed pro- 

 perly. About the first or second week m 

 September after the plants begin to look 

 shabby in the border, cut the top growth 

 well back, leaving about from four to 

 six inches of the lower part of each 

 shoot near the root. If the weather per- 

 mits, leave the plants in the border for a 

 week or ten days until the young growth 

 starts, or they can be dug at once. A 

 slight frost does not injure petunias. 



Dig up the plants carefully, with a 

 little soil attached to the roots if possi- 

 ble. It is a good plan to water the 

 plants well a short time before digging 

 them. Pot the plants carefully into 

 small three or four inch pots, according 

 to the size of the plant, in rather sandy 

 potting soil. Water them well once and 

 set them in the window. Keep the soil 

 moist but not soddened until they start 

 into growth. 



In five or six weeks' time, when the 

 top growth is about six inches in length, 

 repot the plants into a two or three size 



An Apple Warehouse adjoining the Railway at Berwick, Nova Scotia. One of about Eighty in that Province. 



