90 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



The mode of gathering and packing apples for exportation, 

 as practiced by R. L. Pell, of Ulster County, N. Y., who obtains 

 nine or ten dollars per barrel for his Newtown Pippins in the 

 English markets, will serve as a model for the care taken to 

 prevent bruising : " In autumn, when the apple harvest com- 

 mences, men are employed, each with a hand basket, and hook 

 to attach the basket to the limb of a tree, and a step ladder. 

 The apples are picked one at a time, and laid into the basket. 

 When the basket is full, the man comes down from the tree and 

 takes two apples at a time, and places them in two-bushel 

 baskets. When there are enough large baskets filled for a load, 

 they are lifted by two men on a sled and drawn by oxen to a 

 large building, where they are taken from the sled and put on 

 the floor, two apples at a time. They are piled up eighteen or 

 twenty inches high, where they remain three weeks. At the 

 end of this time, the apples having become dry, they are taken 

 two at a time and packed in new barrels, the size and kind of 

 those used for flour. The barrels being headed up, are lifted 

 on a sled and drawn to the North River ; they are then carried 

 by men on board a steam-boat, and taken to New York. When 

 shipped on board a vessel for London, the barrels are hoisted 

 one at a time from the steam-boat, and when lowered on board 

 the vessel are caught on a man's shoulder, and then taken by 

 two men and placed in the coolest part of the vessel. Upon 

 the arrival of the vessel in London, the barrels are hoisted from 

 the vessel and lowered on a hand-barrow, and then carried to the 

 warehouse, in the same manner that we carry a looking-glass." 

 It is seen by the foregoing precautions that the apples are 

 never shaken^ jolted^ or jarred, and they arrive in London in 

 far better order than apples usually taken to our city markets. 

 Mr. Pell further states, " that apples for shipping have some- 

 times been packed in dry sand, charcoal dust — and at other 

 times, they have been separately wrapped up in paper, in the 

 same manner as oranges are shipped ; but they can be shipped 

 with as much success without any thing with them, if only 

 managed with care in other respects." 



Mr. Pell's success in the culture of his immense orchards — 

 some twenty-five thousand apple trees — is well known, and the 

 method and skill with which lie packs his apples are so well 



