-2- 



3. Don't let the trees get too tall. Pickers squeeze apples and handle them 

 roughly when teetering precariously at great heights. 



4. Put tlie emphasis on reward for good performance rather than on penalty for 

 damage: to fruit. 



5. Provide instruction. Many will accept it. Show workers how to make high wages 

 while handling apples gently. Many can gain speed from learning how to set a 

 ladder properly and work systematically. 



6. Show that a bruise often goes deeper than it appears and that a bruised apple 

 looks very bad after it has stood a while. 



7. If necessary to move apples before boxes are leveled and stacked on pallets, 

 keep the boxes in a single layer whenever possible. Coach and supervise 

 loaders to set each box down gently. Show them that one high apple can cause 

 bruises on every apple below the high one. 



8. Resist efforts of buyers to have you fill boxes too full. 



"Building local storages relieved our bruising problem in the Champlain Valley. 

 However, we may now have too much capacity for a light crop year. Formerly, our 

 apples were damaged a lot during closing of boxes, loading and unloading trailer 

 trucks, and rough handling into distant storages. Now, open boxes usually are 

 placed on a pallet in the orchard where grown and not handled again except on 

 pallets by a fork- lift until they are packed for market. They travel well in cell 

 cartons to distant markets. 



"The human problem of getting enough good supervisors is the most difficult 

 aspect of our harvest season. Workers usually respond well to competent, tactful 

 foremen. 



"For 2 years, we have used the scheme of Bill Doe of Harvard, Massachusetts, 

 to reward careful pickers. A bonus of 5 cents a bushel is paid to the 25 per cent 

 of the pickers who do the least bruising each day. Four full-time inspectors score 

 the fruit. Each inspector scores the fruit of every full-time picker each day. 

 Half-day pickers may be scored only twice. A fruit sampler as evolved by the 

 Washington Apple Commission is used to take a 20-apple sample from top to bottom 

 of each random box that is chosen. Calculations are made by Mrs. Burrell each 

 night on a strictly statistical basis. The next morning the pickers find the 

 winners of the previous day's contest listed on the barn door. They usually look 

 to see if they made the bonus before starting work. The key to the success of 

 the system is having competent impartial inspectors, preferably people who do not 

 know the pickers. This year we hope to use mainly women who have packed apples 

 out of storage all winter and spring; they appreciate the seriousness of bruising. 

 The inspector gives the picking numbers of those with poor records to the foreman 

 who helps the picker correct his errors, but sometimes the inspector has time to 

 do a little work with pickers. Such troubles as stem punctures, fruit too green or 

 too small and pulled stems are noted but the bonus is based on bruising alone, for 

 the sake of simplicity. 



