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TOBY'S TR.k-'/ELS 



Chapter V. 



At Vvenatchee the Skookum Apple Packing House was located across the 

 street from the Apple Lane Motel, where we were staying. This afforded me a 

 convenient opportunity to observe the operations in one of the largest packing 

 houses in this area. Inside of this packing house were four huge Cutler graders 

 with eight sorters en each doing the grading. 



Except for the immense size of the operation the grading and packing procedures 

 were essentially the same as we find in many packing houses in the East, 



However, there were a few unusual feat-ures which are worthy of mention. Of 

 particular interest was the amount of automatic machinery employed which reduced 

 materially the need for manual labor. As an illustration, the apples from the 

 receiving platform are stacked six boxes high on a moving truck which takes them 

 to an automatic dumping machine which gently dumps the apples on the grading 

 machine and then delivers the empty box on a conveyor which delivers it to a point 

 where it can be loaded on the trucks returning to the orchards. After the apples 

 are dumped they pass through a washer and then on to the sorting table. I'Thile 

 washing is no longer necessary for removal of arsenical residue since lead arsenate 

 has been replaced in the spray schedule by other pesticides, the practice of 

 washing is maintained in order to improve the appearance of the fruit. 



Another particularly interesting feature in this packing house was the analysis 

 of culls . As mentioned previously, this packing house has four graders . Each 

 grader may be handling apples from different orchards. However, the culls from 

 each of these graders are delivered into separate bins which are located at a 

 central point. Near this central point is a small laboratory where a lady trained 

 in the recognition of blemishes takes samples from each of the cull bins and 

 analyzes them and thius determines the reasons why these apples are culls, A report 

 of this analysis is furnished the grower. The first three items on the tally sheet 

 are puncture, box cut and bruise. Other items in the list are: worms, scale, 

 cutworms, bitter pit, sunscald, water core, etc. The principal causes of culls on 

 the lots of fruit that I observed were; codling moth, scale, a pitting of the 

 fruit which appeared to be due to boron deficiency, cutworm, and powdery mildeTv 

 which caused a net- like russeting of the apples. 



With a limited amount of rainfall in the Northwest apple producing regions 

 little vegetation except sagebrush can be grown on the land unless it is irrigated. 

 Formerly, the general practice was to cultivate the orchards and irrigate them by 

 means of a series of trenches and rills. At present the trend is towards the use 

 of sod with the irrigation vrater being supplied by overhead sprinklers. This allows 

 for the use of modern spray equipment in the control of orchard pests . 



In this area it is a common sight to see a thrifty green orchard completely 

 surrounded by barreness except for sagebrush. The presence or lack of irrigation 

 water is responsible for the difference. 



From Wenatchee we traveled approximately one hxmdred miles south over 

 beautiful moiontain passes to the City of Yakima. While Yakima does, not produce 

 the volume of apples that is produced in Wenatchee the orchards are scattered over 

 a much wider area and some of them are on lower elevations where frost becomes a 

 hazard. 



