l62 THE AMERICAN PEACH ORCHARD 



labor is available it is also found to be very satis- 

 factory. Near manufacturing centers women and 

 girls can usually be employed, and when the proper 

 ones are found, they make very good pickers. In 

 most districts, however, the picking gang is mis- 

 cellaneous and nondescript in the extreme. In gen- 

 eral the workers receive their wages by the day. 

 These wages will vary with the locality, running 

 from 75 cents to $2 a day or even more. In most 

 large orchard enterprises pickers are paid by the 

 basket. Where half-bushel baskets are used for 

 picking the wages are from two to five cents a 

 basket. 



SORTING 



As soon as the fruit is picked it must be carried to 

 the packing house. For this purpose nothing is bet- 

 ter than the regulation fruit wagon as made by sev- 

 eral manufacturers. This wagon has good springs, 

 and broad flat bed on which the fruit baskets are 

 piled. 



A convenient packing house centrally located is 

 of great importance in handling a peach crop. Its 

 arrangement is a problem upon which the fruit 

 grower can well spend considerable thought and 

 some money. A small packing house should be ar- 

 ranged to receive the fruit at one side ; to handle it, 

 sort it and pack it near the center of the house ; and 

 pass it out to wagons or cars on the opposite side. 

 A large packing house should be arranged to re- 

 ceive the fruit from two sides if not three, to have 

 it sorted in two ranges of sorting tables and deliv- 

 ered to a center aisle. The fruit should then be in- 

 spected and passed along the center aisle to the end 

 of the house from which it is handed directly into 

 the cars. 



