WHEN AND HOW TO PICK 237 



orchard box makes an excellent receptacle to store apples in and 

 will last a long time if handled with reasonable care. 



When and How to Pick. We come now to the second of 

 cur picking questions. When to pick the fruit varies, of course, 

 with circumstances and with fruits. It varies all the way from 

 peaches, which are never quite so good as when allowed to get 

 thoroughly ripe on the trees, to pears, which practically ought 

 never to be allowed to ripen on the tree. The distance the 

 fruit has to be shipped is an important factor in determining 

 the proper degree of ripeness for most fruits. The farther one 

 has to ship the "greener" must the fruit be when picked. That 

 is one of the advantages which the local grower has over the 

 man who has to ship long distances. Watch the way prices 

 jump up when the first "native" or local peaches or strawberries 

 come on, and you get an estimate as to how much it improves 

 them to ripen on the tree or vine. 



As there is considerable variation in handling the different 

 fruits at picking time it may be well to suggest a few points 

 as to picking each particular fruit. 



Apples when grown for market are seldom allowed to get 

 fully ripe on the tree, though it probably does not reduce their 

 quality any to do so if they mature early enough. Gravensteins, 

 for example, that have ripened on the tree are certainly fully 

 as good as if they had been picked earlier and allowed to ripen 

 in storage. Of course the winter varieties are not really ripe 

 until long after they are picked, and even the early sorts, though 

 they are more nearly ripe, are usually pretty "green" when 

 picked. 



The proper degree of maturity is judged in various ways. 

 The amount of red color is frequently a fair index. The appear- 

 ance of the cheek, whether it is still a dead, even, hard green or 

 whether it has begun to ripen up and look edible, is very im- 

 portant. The ease with which the stem separates from the tree 

 is also an excellent index of maturity. So long as either the 

 stem or the spur is likely to break instead of the joint between 

 the two, the apple may safely be left on the tree, except where 

 one is shipping very long distances. But when this joint 



