154 THE AMERICAN APPLE ORCHARD 



trees. Sometimes they are placed in piles on the 

 ground. Sometimes they are put into barrels without 

 sorting and left in the orchard; sometimes they are 

 put unsorted into barrels and carried to the temporary 

 storage house ; sometimes they are immediately sorted, 

 barreled, headed up and sent to storage. If the stock 

 is going to cold storage, which is now the customary 

 method, the last named plan of handling the fruit is 

 undoubtedly the best. It certainly is a mistake in all 

 cases to leave the fruit on the ground even for a few 

 hours. If there is good storage at home and handy by, 

 it is a very good practice to put the apples into barrels 

 unsorted and take them immediately to the storage 

 house, where they can be sorted and packed more at 

 leisure. Under all circumstances, however, they ought 

 to be put into as cool a place as possible with the least 

 possible delay. In handling fancy grades of stock in 

 barrels, it is probably best to pick the fruit, sort, pack 

 and head it up at once and put it immediately into cold 

 refrigerator cars, sending these off as expeditiously as 

 possible to the cold-storage plant. This method is 

 actually practiced on a large scale by some of the best 

 growers. There is no extraordinary expense in it ; in 

 fact, nothing out of common except the expense of the 

 refrigerator cars, which has been shown to be profit- 

 able with good fruit. 



When apples are taken to the temporary storage 

 houses without sorting, it is best to grade them over as 

 soon as convenient. This is more necessary if the 

 grade of the fruit is low. If there is considerable fun- 

 gus, they should be sorted at once, all first-grade fruit 

 being- put by itself. In case the fruit comes from the 

 trees in extra good condition, with no fungus and very 

 few culls, there is not so much urgency in this early 



