HANDLING THE APPLE CEOP 



SOME timely and valuable advice on 

 the selling, picking and grading of 

 apples is given by Mr. W. A. Mac- 

 Kinnon, chief of the Fruit Division, Otta- 

 wa. Every one interested in the growing 

 and marketing of apples should write for a 

 copy of Mr. MacKinnon's bulletin on the 

 "Export Apple Trade." 



SeIvIvIng thej Crop. — When the grower 

 is not also an exporter he may sell the ap- 

 ples in one of two ways, either at so much 

 per barrel or at a lump sum for the entire 

 orchard. As buyers often make their con- 

 tracts long before picking time, either 

 method involves consideration of the pro- 

 bable market price during fall and winter, 

 which will be regulated by the total supply 

 and demand, influenced too by changes in 

 the quality of the crop. When to this un- 

 certainty we add the difficulty of estimating 

 months in advance the total yield of an or- 

 chard, subject to all changes of weather, to 

 drought, hail and wind storms, the unbusi- 

 ness-like character of bargaining " by the 

 lump " is apparent. Whichever party 

 gains an undue advantage, the trade suffers 

 from this as from any other kind of gamb- 

 ling. The system was strongly condemned 

 by the National Apple Shippers' Associa- 

 tion, and our Canadian buyers describe it 

 as an unmixed evil. Surely no more need 

 be said to induce both buyers and sellers to 

 abandon such guesswork, and to buy and 

 sell by fixed standards of measure. 



Picking. — All apples should be carefully- 

 picked by hand, with the stems on, and 

 without breaking the skin or bruising the 

 fruit in any way. 



As a general rule it is advisable for grow- 

 ers to harvest and pack their own fruit, 

 whether they eventually sell it on the pre- 

 mises or, ship to foreign rnarkets. In either 



case it is a great advantage to the seller to 

 know exactly the quality and variety of the 

 fruit in every package. It is a still greater 

 advantage to have each variety picked at 

 just the proper time. No wholesale buyer 

 is able to have his men arrive at each or- 

 chard just when the apples in it are ready. 

 The result is that every season a great many 

 orchards throughout Canada are picked 

 either too late or too early. Fruit picked 

 too early may keep, but is apt to become 

 tough and tasteless ; if picked too late it will 

 not keep, as the process of decay has al- 

 ready begun. 



Time to Pick. — Tender varieties should 

 not be allowed to ripen on the trees, or they 

 will not carry well. Certain others, some- 

 times styled " winter varieties," such as the 

 Baldwin and Spy, will gain in color and 

 flavor if left on the trees as long as the 

 frost will allow, besides being less liable to 

 spot and mould during storage. It will 

 pay the farmer well to pick his own fruit 

 and see that this first step in marketing en- 

 tails no needless waste. 



Moreover, all varieties of apples are not 

 ready for picking at hte same time, even, if 

 destined for the same market; and some 

 early varieties should have more than one 

 picking to get all the fruit at the proper 

 stage of maturity. Only the grower is in 

 a position to watch his orchard and harvest 

 the crop to the best advantage, and it is the 

 grower who loses when he entrusts this 

 task to another, for buyers are certain to 

 allow for shrinkage from this cause. An- 

 other loss to the grower arises from care- 

 lessness of hired help, who often injure 

 trees by breaking limbs and fruit spurs. 



Removai, of " Drops.'' — Before any fruit 

 is taken from the trees, every apple, good, 

 bad, or indifferent, should be cleared off the 



