Stone Fruits: Cherries 125 



When good trees are planted it is rarely necessary to prune them 

 more than once. The trees, however, should be examined each year to 

 see that they are developing uniformly. 



When the orchard comes into bearing it will still be necessary to 

 examine the trees occasionally. Dead wood and ladder-broken wood must 

 be cut out. Wherever two branches cross and rub against one another 

 one of them should be cut off. Some trees grow too thickly in the 

 centre; this growth also needs cutting out, since it hinders the free 

 circulation of air through the branches, and also, as we shall see later, 

 it is upon this centre growth that the black Cherry Aphis begins to 

 develop in early summer. 



Picking 1 and Marketing". Picking usually commences towards the 

 end of June, when the early cherries are ripe, and continues with the 

 later varieties until the end of July. The gathering is done sometimes 

 by men and sometimes by women; in the latter case, one careful man 

 is told off with a gang of from six to eight women, according to the 

 crop of cherries. If the crop is large, the ladders do not need frequent 

 moving, and consequently one man can attend to a larger number of 

 women than if the crop is small. 



Cherries are picked sometimes by piecework, sometimes by daywork, 

 depending upon the abundance of the crop and other considerations. At 

 the beginning of the season, when cherries are making good prices, the 

 trees are usually picked over two or three times, and only the ripe fruit 

 is gathered. In this case the picking is done by the day, and thus the 

 pickers can be induced to make a good sample of the fruit. Later on 

 in the season, especially if the cherry crop is a large one and the fruit 

 is realizing a lower price, it is most important to secure the crop quickly 

 at as low a cost as possible; consequently the pickers are put on by the 

 " piece ". In this case the trees are only gathered once. The earliest 

 cherries are allowed to get dead ripe, so that the later fruit may also 

 be ripe and ready to pick at the same time. By this piecework method 

 the crop can be gathered at a very much lower price, ranging from 

 Qd. per half-sieve upwards, but naturally the sample of fruit obtained 

 is not so o-ood. 



~ 



During the picking season much careful supervision is necessary, not 

 only to ensure the fruit being carefully picked and a good sample obtained, 

 but also to see that the branches are not broken about and next year's 

 crop impaired. Unless carefully overlooked, the pickers pull the fruit 

 from the strigs (" plug " the fruit, as it is called) instead of picking strigs 

 and fruit together, with the result that the juice runs out and the fruit 

 becomes sticky and quickly rots; they are also liable to mix in green 

 and rotten fruit with the sound sample. Much damage is also done 

 by pickers and ladder movers breaking off the " bruts " or short fruiting 

 branches, and thus diminishing the crop in future years. 



Cherries are for the most part marketed in half-sieves, but just the 

 very choicest and earliest fruit is often packed in pecks, and in this 



