- 3 - 



apples as a harvest and storage container without an appreciable Increase of 

 bruising and stem punctures. These bulk boxes had the Inside dimensions of 

 38-1/8" X 34" X 26" and held approximately 15-1/2 bushels. 



Roberts' research showed that dumping the apples with a one-half inversion 

 dumper caused an excessive Increase In the percentage of apples with stem punc- 

 tures from the bulk boxes compared with hand dumping of Northeastern apple crates. 



In December of this year, the writer compared hand dumping Mcintosh apples 

 from northeastern apple crates with unloading bulk boxes of apples with a water 

 submergence device. The hand dumping consisted of dumping apples in eastern 

 boxes with the aid of a burlap bag, with one end tacked to the grader, on the 

 receiving table of a commercial grader. The bulk boxes were unloaded in a water 

 submergence unloading device and the test fruit were removed from the water tank 

 Just ahead of the removal conveyor which carries the apples from the tank to the 

 cull eliminator. 



Approximately 12 per cent of the apples hand dvmiped on the receiving table 

 of the commercial grader had broken skin. Only 2.6 per cent of the apples from the 

 bulk boxes had this type of mechanical injury. These data Bhcn^} that the operating 

 principle of unloading bulk boxes of Mcintosh apples by water floatation is 

 effective from the standpoint of minimizing damage from broken skin. 



"-William J. Lord 

 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 



STRAWBERRIES - MATTED ROW VS. HILL SYSTEM 



In the East, strawberries are grown almost entirely in matted rows. The 

 mother plants are set 18 to 24 inches apart (24 inches is not too much for virus- 

 free plants) in rows 3-1/2 to 5 feet apart. The runner, or daughter plants are 

 allowed to root where they will and fill in the row. Some growers thin the 

 daughter plants in the fall; most do not. 



Under the hill system as many plants as are to be in the field are all set 

 at one time. They are usually set about 12 inches apart in xcKtB 18 inches apart. 

 Two or three rows are set and then a path 30 inches wide is left. With 3 ro^^s 

 and a path it takes a little less than 24,000 plants to set an acre. After the 

 plants are set, runners are removed periodically so that no daughter plants are 

 produced. The crm^ns of the plants get very large and usually have several 

 branches. This system has not been popular in the eastern United States because 

 of the added labor and cost of setting so many plants and of keeping the runners 

 removed. The big advantage, the one which makes the hill system popular in the 

 far west and south, is higher yields. 



Several years ago Dr. John Tompkins of the New York Agricultural Experiment 

 Station in Geneva using six varieties consistently obtained higher yields from 

 the hill system than from matted ro^^s. Where irrigation was used the increase of 

 hills over matted rows was 6,500 to 14,300 quarts per acre; with no irrigation 

 the Increase was 1,900 to 7,100 quarts per acre. 



