PICKING 49 



about 75 cents to $i.oo at retail. Another pair of 

 scissors, somewhat different, and also shown in the 

 illustration, is used for trimming the bunches of 

 grapes when they are packed into the baskets for 

 market. 



Similar .scissors can be advantageously employed in 

 picking currants when they are to be nicely packed 

 for a good market. 



Occasionally one will find illu.strated and described 

 some so-called fruit-picking machines. For the most 

 part these are even less worthy of description than the 

 pole-pickers just referred to. They are usually some 

 kind of a mechanical compromise between shaking the 



KIG. 8 — SHEARS FOR TRIMMING FRUIT 



fruit off the tree and picking it by hand. The typical 

 fruit-picking machine consists of a considerable spread 

 of canvas stretched on a frame and mounted on a 

 wheelbarrow. The canvas is arranged somewhat in 

 the form of a broad-flaring funnel. The apples, or 

 pears, or plums are shaken onto this canvas and roll 

 toward the center, where there is sometimes a hole 

 through which they pass into a basket. The use of 

 such machines is to be strongly deprecated. The only 

 way to pick fruit is by hand. Certain exceptions 

 should be made to this rule for fruit picked for canning 

 factories and drying houses. Mechanical pickers may 



