PICKING, PACKING AND MARKETING 



hot, murky days. No picking equals that done with your hands, 

 yet some of the patent pickers might be used for the fine fruits 

 out on the ends of tall limbs. 



Ladders should be light and strong. Extension ladders will 

 be good for high trees, but ordinarily the best are made from 

 dead white pine poles cut in the woods, with cleats nailed on. 

 These are light, very strong, and cheap. 



For peach trees, a three-foot picking bench is often what is 

 needed. The next higher is a two-way step-ladder, with a plat- 

 form near the top on which to set the basket. This is good for 

 young apple trees too. A longer ladder arrangement, that can 

 be moved about easily, is made by using a couple of strong 

 wheels, of any kind and size, and axle, and two handles like 

 wheelbarrow handles. The lower ends of two six-foot uprights 

 are bolted to these handles near the axle, while the upper ends 

 are bolted to the ladder eight feet or so from the bottom. Lad- 

 ders should be laid into trees gently, and fruit should be handled 

 like eggs. 



As soon as possible after the fruit leaves the twigs, get it 

 into cool storage. Some of the best growers do not allow picked 

 fruit to remain in the orchard or grading -houses more than 

 thirty minutes. Fruit cooled quickly will keep longer and in 

 much better condition than that left to lie around. Under no 

 conditions pile fruit on the ground or grass in the orchard. 

 Crates, bushel-boxes, barrels, etc., are all good for use in carry- 

 ing apples and pears from orchard to grading or storage house. 

 Peaches, plums and grapes should go in baskets or hampers, 

 which are firm and solid. Shaky and yielding baskets will 

 bruise fruit. 



Low-wheeled, broad-tired wagons, with a platform higher 

 than the wheels, and no bed just a four-inch rim are best 

 to haul fruit on. At the sorting-house or storage-place have 

 platforms just about as high as the wagon platform, to make 

 unloading quicker and easier. One grower uses large coffee- 

 boxes to haul apples in, and loads these side by side on a wagon 

 made by fastening two long, springy poles to the front and 

 rear bolsters of a long-coupled wagon. Spring wagons are made 

 that do good work, and one or two automobile makers offer 

 big trucks that are efficient. 



What is first-class fruit? Take apples, for instance. The 

 grading of other fruits is governed to a certain extent by the 

 rules that apply with apples. That is, all fruit is graded for 

 color, size and perfection, and any one who can correctly grade 

 apples can grade the other fruits by applying common sense. 

 "Standard" big apples must be more than two and one-half 

 inches in diameter. A standard small apple must be more than 

 two and a quarter inches. These are the firsts, in regard to 

 size. The next standard smaller size is a quarter of an inch less 

 in each case. Size makes little difference in the selling price, 

 so long as the apples are up to the mark in other things. All the 

 apples in one package must be uniform in size and in color. 

 The rules of all selling associations of the West, and the regu- 

 lations under which fruit is judged at all the big shows are that 



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