PACKING FOR MARKET. 31 



upon the lower branches, and also in the top. The ordinary 

 step-ladders are also very serviceable. 



Assorting. — After picking tlie frnit, it should be put into 

 piles of eiglit to ten bushels each under the trees, or into barrels 

 j\ and taken to the barn or slied floor, and should be allowed 

 to undergo the sweating or curing process for several days. 

 Some growers pick, assort, and pack the fruit at once in the 

 orchard. If allowed to stand several days in a cool place 

 before heading up, tliis may not be an objec- 

 tionable practice; biit if the head is put in 

 Rat once, the fruit will not generally keep as 

 well as if longer exposed to the air after 

 picking. 



The Apples should be sorted into two 

 kinds, the No. 1, or firsts, and No. 2, or sec- 

 onds. This is absolutely necessary for suc- 

 cess. The No. 1 fruit if nicely put up, will 

 Fig. 27. often bring more in the market than if both Fig. 28. 



kinds were sold together, for it only requires a very few poor 

 specimens in a barrel to injure the sale of the entire lot. The 

 No. 1 fruit shoidd be large, fair, and free from worm-holes. 

 Some attention should be given to evenness in the size of the fruit 

 in each barrel or lot. 



Packing. — For shipping to Europe, or sending to any distant 

 market, there is no package equal to the common, clean flour 

 barrel. The full size barrel, holding one liundred quarts, is 

 more satisfactory to all pai'ties than the small "pony" or two- 

 bushel barrel. Before the head is put in, the barrel must be 

 shaken from side to side, to settle the fruit as much as possible. 

 Then pack evenly on top, one or two inches liigher than the top 

 of the staves, and the head is then pressed in place by means of a 

 screw-press; or, better, by the simple lever-press, illustrated by 

 Fig. 30, Page 35. The hoops are now driven in place, and the 

 head nailed firmly. Packed in this way, the barrels may be 

 tumbled about to the entire satisfaction of the worst kind of 

 baggage-smasher and not be injured. In packing for shipping to 

 Europe, the bottom layer i^ faced, so that when this head is taken 

 out (and the barrel is opened at this end when offered for sale), 

 tlie Apples will present an attractive appearance. Honest pack- 

 ing throughout the barrel will be found the most profitable in the 

 long run. 



Keeping Fruit. — The best condition for the preservation of 

 fruit is a rather dry atmosjdiere, witli the temperature kept as 

 near to the freezing point as possible. The ordinary winter fruit 

 is conunonly kept in fair condition until the middle of March, or 

 sometmies later, at a much higher temperature, in the common 

 cellar. 



Perhaps the best way to keep winter fruit, with the ordinary 

 facilities of the farm, is to put it in ordinary barrels with the 

 heads out; or, in large shallow boxes, holding from three to five 



