APPLES 



325 



Ladders 



There are many different types of lad- 

 ders, some of them very awkward and 

 clumsy. A ladder should be light and 

 easily handled, braced strongly, and so 

 constructed that it will not tip over 

 easily. All joints should be tight so that 

 there will be as little wobble to the lad- 

 der as possible. For picking the lower 

 parts of the tree the short step-ladder, 

 three or four feet high, and made rigid, 

 is good. For lighter work, the tripod 

 step-ladder is fine. It combines lightness 

 with ease of operation, and is also very 

 strong and solid. In some sections the 

 so-called Japanese tripod ladder is used 

 to quite an extent. Other ladders, such 

 as the rail ladder, consisting of a single 

 strong stake with a wide base and rounds 

 projecting from it, are used for very high 

 work. In the East the wire apple picker 

 is sometimes used to pluck some of the 

 very highest apples growing in the center 

 of the tree; but in the Northwest these 

 pickers have been needed very little as 

 yet because our trees are lower. 



Fig. 7. Another Type of l^ortatilp (Orchard 

 Ladder which enables the picker to get close 

 in to the tree without breakins the branches 

 or bruising the fruit. 



— Courtesy WnotiD <£ Soule, Payette, Idaho. 



Fig. 8. The Japanese Ladder. 



Picking' Boxes 



The picking or lug box should prefer- 

 ably be somewhat larger than the packing 

 box, in order to keep it separate from 

 the latter. This size also has the ad- 

 vantage of holding about a packed bushel 

 of apples. The box should have slits cut 

 in the ends so that the fingers may enter 

 for lifting the box, and these ends prefer- 

 ably should be higher than the sides so 

 that as one box is set upon the other 

 there will be no jamming of the fruit. 



Some orchardists have a very light port- 

 able stand which pickers working on the 

 ground among the lower branches take 

 with them for setting the picking box on. 

 The picker then does not have to stoop 

 to deposit his fruit in his box, and bruis- 

 ing is minimized. 



