Baskets and Wagons. 389 



have both hands free. There are various special 

 practices to facilitate apple -picking, which are not 

 proper subjects for discussion in a general fruit- 

 book. 



There are various appliances which may be used 

 in the field to facilitate the picking of fruit, some 

 of which may be briefly mentioned. In the first 

 place, the fruit picker should provide himself with 

 an ample supply of crates or baskets, or whatever 

 other receptacle may be used in the field. These 

 receptacles should be strong and durable, so that 

 they may be used year after year ; this is espe- 

 cially true of the baskets and crates which are used 

 for the picking of the heavier fruits, like pears, 

 apples and grapes. It is generally advisable to take 

 the fruits to the packing house in the very baskets or 

 boxes in which they are placed from the tree, thereby 

 avoiding unnecessary handling of the fruit. In the 

 case of winter apples, however, it is sometimes ad- 

 missible to carefully pour the apples from the round- 

 bottomed baskets, into which they are picked, into 

 bushel baskets, or sometimes into crates such as are 

 used for potatoes. In any case it is always advis- 

 able, in the best quality of fruit, to have all these 

 baskets or crates lined with burlaps. 



The best wagons for use in orchards are those 

 which are of the platform style, with low and very 

 broad -tired wheels, and the platform extending over 

 the wheels. Such wagons are not only capable of 

 carrying a very large load, but do not cut up the 

 ground ; they are easily drawn and managed, and 



