Rememberl Accidents with pesticides don't just happen - somebody 

 lets them happen - someone who didn't "measure up". 



*************** 



A NEW APPROACH WITH PICKING EQUIPMENT 



Max G. Fultz 

 Regional Agricultural Specialist 



Harried and worried as are apple growers with the harvest labor 

 problem, it is logical and likely that they will turn to management 

 means to help solve the problem. Solutions that can be contained within 

 the industry have always been the favored and perhaps most effective an- 

 swers to problems. The urgent need for mechanical substitutes or aids 

 for human labor became increasingly apparent in 1965. Despite some re- 

 search with mechanical picking contrivances, most leaders of the industry 

 hold little hope that a mechanical picker will be available in time to 

 get the industry past the present crisis. Mcintosh, as well as other var- 

 ieties, are too delicate and easily bruised for anything but perfection. 



Emphasis on harvest aids to increase the efficiency of the picker, 

 seems most practical. For many years, growers have constructed and tried 

 apple picking aids of various types; stilts, mobile ladders, platforms, 

 hydraulic lifts and so forth. 



This photograph shows the attempt by 

 Roger and Gordon Kimball to increase 

 harvest efficiency by using a mechan- 

 ical lift. The Kimballs ' orchard 

 property in Littleton, Lunenburg and 

 Ashby, Massachusetts, is on rolling 

 hills with most slopes gradual rather 

 than excessively steep. 



The machine used by the Kimballs en- 

 ables one man to lift himself up and 

 maneuver into position for picking, 

 controlling the operation entirely 

 from the bucket as shown. A small 

 platform in front will hold filled 

 boxes, another, back of the picker, 

 holds 3 empties in the conventional 

 3 box "nest". 



The Kimballs feel that a mechanical 

 lift can be economical, but only if used as a part of a picking team, 

 and for other jobs such as pruning and thinning. The machine operator 

 expects to harvest the tops of the trees, leaving the fruit on the lower 

 branches to be picked from the ground or from short ladders by the re- 

 mainder of the team. They have used 25 per cent of the tree height as 



