HARVESTING AND MARKETING 1$! 



are subject to scald should be given special attention 

 in this respect, as it is found that the scald is worse on 

 apples picked before maturity. Thoroughly ripe apples, 

 well colored, are not nearly so much subject to scald 

 as are green, uncolored specimens. 



The importance of having the fruit nicely colored 

 and ripened when picked is so great that many of the 

 best growers who make a specialty of fancy grades 

 have adopted the practice of picking the apple trees 

 over two, three, or even four times. At each picking 

 they take off such fruit as is ripe, well colored, and up 

 to size. The balance is allowed to hang, and it is 

 found that the apples will increase greatly in size 

 toward the end of the season and will color up and 

 otherwise improve long after the first lot would 

 have fallen to the ground. Of course, this method 

 of picking over the trees several times would be 

 too expensive with cheap fruit and with all poorer 

 grades of apples. It is strongly recommended, 

 however, for early varieties and fancy grades. 



There have been all sorts of mechanical pickers ad- 

 vertised, but none has ever become popular. They 

 are of two kinds. The first kind, intended to pick a 

 single apple at a time out of the higher branches, con- 

 sists of some sort of a pocket hung on the end of a 

 long pole. These contrivances are too slow and cum- 

 bersome for any commercial work. The second style 

 presents some modification of the old practice of shak- 

 ing apples off the trees. It furnishes some kind of a 

 spread held under the branches upon which the apples 

 are shaken down. While the method is cheap enough 

 to make it commercially available, it is too rough for 

 the exacting demands of present-day business. By all 



