Harvesting Machines 



379 



used. Cherries were formerly sometimes gathered by 

 being shaken into the machines used for the catching of 

 curculios. It is needless to say that these means of 

 gathering fruit are advisable only when the fruit 

 is to be manu- |B facturedintosomecommercial prod- 

 uct, or when 

 the price of fruit 

 is extremely 

 small. 



To lessen 

 the cost of har- 

 vesting and to 

 overcome the 

 difficulty of 

 securing pick- 

 ers in remote 

 places, a har- 

 vester for rasp- 

 berries has 

 come into use. 

 This is a canvas 

 tray, made by stretching the cloth over a light wooden 

 frame about 3 feet wide and 4 to 5 feet long. At the bottom, 

 the frame projects upward at right angle to the body of 

 the frame to a distance of 5 or 6 inches, to catch the berries 

 as they fall upon the canvas. A wooden shoe or runner 

 is placed on the bottom of the apparatus, to allow the 

 operator to slide it along from bush to bush, as shown in 

 Fig. 145. A long wire hook is used to pull the bushes 

 over the tray, or to lift up the fallen canes, while with 

 the other hand the operator deftly cuffs off the berries 

 with a paddle of wood, or of wire covered with canvas, 

 and about the size of a butter-ladle. This harvester 



FIG. 145. Harvesting rasp- 

 berries by batting; and the 

 batter's hook. 



