30 HARVESTING APPLES. 



CHAPTER IX. 



GATHERING AND STORING APPLES. 



GATHERING SHAKING OFF — PICKING LADDERS ASSORTING 



PACKING KEEPING COLD STORAGE — -GENERAL REMARKS. 



Gathering. — Simimer aucl autuiim Apples, if for market, 

 should be picked aud seut to market as soon as mature, on ac- 

 count of their perishable nature. Yellow and green varieties 

 require greater care in picking and packing than the colored sorts, 

 as everj"^ bruise results in a brown mark that injures their sale. 

 For cooking purposes, all the fruit upon a tree may be picked at 

 once ; but for table use or to supply fruit stands, some varieties 

 must be picked only as they color upon the tree. Such A'a»ieties 

 as the Gravenstein and Fameuse are often very profitable if kept 

 in cold storage until December, when they bring very high prices. 

 As a rule, the sooner Summer or Autumn Apples are in the mar- 

 ket the more profitable they are to the grower. 



Winter Apples should not be picked until fully grown, but 

 should be secured before severe freezing weather takes place, 

 and always before the ripening or mellowing process begins, to 

 have them keep well. I think it a pretty well settled question 

 that Apples picked early in autumn, ?'. e., on or before October first, 

 will keep longer than those picked after October twentieth, al- 

 though they will not be of as good quality nor as large. 



No Apples — Summer, Autumn or AYinter — should ever be 

 shaken from the tree, as not one in ten tlms gathered will fail to 

 receive some injury. The fruit should be picked by hand into 

 baskets suspended by hooks upon the ladder or branches; or in a 

 ^_/rV_ bag suspended over the shoulder, with the mouth open 

 n^lV«*'M in front; or by means of the hand pickers shown in 

 \ N j Figs. 25 and 26. For getting into the tops of tall trees, 

 V___X the long ladder is indis- 

 pensable. An improved " ^^^ 

 form is shown in Fig. 27; 

 the sides are drawn to- ^^s- -S- 

 gether at the end so that the point may be thrust 

 in among the branches without the ends catcliing, as 

 with the common ladder. An extension ladder, made 

 so as to fold over and form a supporting or step-ladder 

 „ 25. (Fig- 28), is very convenient for gathering the fruit 



