PICKING, PACKING AND MARKETING APPLES. 



411 



for emptying". The workmen will adjust the 

 leng'th of this tackle to correspond to his own 

 length, and should be forbidden to throw the 

 sack over his head. In apple picking, time 

 is too precious for unnecessary movements. 



When apples are barreled in the orchard, 

 the packing gang, with portable sorting 

 table keeps even pace with the pickers, the 

 latter emptying- their sacks as fast as filled 

 directly upon the table. The sorting table 

 is constructed with a slat bottom, slats half 

 round, one inch by two inches, set one inch 

 apart. A good size for the table is three 

 feet by six feet. Sometimes they are made 

 even longer, up to twelve feet in length. 

 The sides of the table are six inches high. 

 Its outlet is provided with an apron, which 

 enables the packer to let the apples drop in- 

 to the barrel without bruising. A piece of 

 plank for the barrel to stand on while being 

 filled and on which it may be frequently 

 jarred, is an essential part of the equipment. 

 The great advantage in this method of pack- 

 ing lies in the fact that it involves less hand- 

 ling than any other possible device. Its ad- 

 vantages, as compared with a permanent or 

 temporar}' packing-house, are serious. With 

 a packing-house the barrels are kept dry ; 

 the work of barreling is not interrupted by 

 a slight shower ; the culls are brought to one 

 place, and, most important of all, the grade 

 of the stock can be made to run much more 

 evenly than with the orchard pack. 



It is more and more apparent that where 

 any considerable quantity of apples is raised 

 there should be a permanent structure for 

 receiving- the apples, if not for storing- a por- 

 tion of them. A common form of apple 

 house intended for storage is two storied — 

 one story above ground and one partially 

 below. The underground story will, of 

 course, be frost proof ; the upper story must 

 be made practically so by hollow walls, saw- 

 dust packing, air spaces, or whatever method 

 is used. In both stories bins are arranged 

 on each side of a central alley. If the bins 



are single decked, the apples are often piled 

 up four feet deep by six to ten or twelve feet 

 wide, according to the width of the bin. 

 Such houses are often constructed double or 

 triple decked. In such cases two and one- 

 half feet is a common depth for the apples in 

 the bins. Such a building must be fully 

 equipped with ventilators and double sashed 

 windows. If the ventilators are carefully 

 kept open at night and shut by day, the 

 temperature can be surprisingly controlled, 

 and in ordinary seasons apples are often 

 carried through to January i or even 'to 

 March i without extraordinary loss. 



Where apples are placed in farm storage 

 the gathering is much simplified. Suppos- 

 ing the picking- to be done in sacks, the haul- 

 ing is done in barrels having but one head, 

 on wagons fitted with barrel bottoms. The 

 barrel bottom is made of two-inch planks 

 bolted to crosspieces. It has no sides, but 

 instead poles are secured to the top rings of 

 the wag-on stakes, in such wise as to be in- 

 stantly detached, if desirable to have the 

 pole out of the way for unloading. The 

 ends of this rig are secured by ropes. If the 

 " barrel bottom" is fourteen feet long it will 

 hold sixteen barrels, which is enough for a 

 load. 



To make the apple harvest "go" with 

 economy, each picking gang should consist 

 of sixteen men and a boss. They will take 

 four rows of trees at a time, and at each re- 

 move will take four trees in each row — six- 

 teen trees, with a man for each tree. The 

 wagon will keep along with the pickers, tak- 

 ing its stand every time in the center of the 

 sixteen trees. The boss and driver will re- 

 ceive the apples from the pickers and care- 

 fully pour them in barrels. There should 

 be wagons enough so that the work may not 

 be interrupted for want of transportation. 

 The boss may take charg-e of the wagon 

 while it is loading and turn it over to the 

 driver when loaded. In that way one team 

 can be run without a driver. The manner 



