232 



PICKING AND HANDLING FRUIT 



The actual operation varies greatly with different fruits, 

 with different men and under different conditions. Most au- 

 thorities seem to favor the use of a pair of shears for taking off* 

 the fruits, though others are rather partial to a good pair of 

 hands. A point that is very important is to go systematically 

 over the tree in thinning. If he does not do this the oper- 

 ator never knows when he is through. Begin by removing 

 all defective fruits, such as wormy or diseased ones, those 

 that are under-sized and those that show limb-bruises or 



Fia 110 — Boys thinning apples. It cost 40 cents per tree to thin trees of this size 

 twice, and they averaged about lour barrels of apples at harvest time. That is ten cents 

 per barrel for thinning and the owner was offered $1.00 per barrel more than his neighbors. 



other similar defects. Then try to thin down to a reason- 

 ably uniform distance apart, for uniform distance gives uni- 

 form fruit. This is going to vary, of course, but the usual 

 error is not to take oft' enough. When a man gets through 

 with the thinning and looks at the ground he is sure he has 

 taken off too many. When it comes time to pick he almost always 

 wishes he had taken off more. Western orchardists are by far 

 the best authorities in the matter, and many of them recom- 

 mend thinning apples to as much as 8 or 10 inches apart. If this 

 seems like too much, begin by taking off all the apples but one 



