128 THE CULTIVATION OF THE 



frequently cautioned to be careful to work gently, and 

 to break or split as few limbs as possible. If you are 

 picking for long shipments you must take the fruit fully 

 formed, but hard. If for a near-by market, you may 

 let it fill up more, and even show signs of ripening, but 

 not softness. If you are picking for canners you want 

 it full and ripe, but not soft, and, for the evaporator, you 

 can use it hard, soft, or very soft. This evaporator is a 

 great help to the grower, but equally as much the enemy 

 to his pen of hogs. Formerly, the pigs got everything 

 that could not be shipped. Now the evaporator has 

 changed all this, and no part of the crop goes amiss. 



I think, sometimes, many of our peaches are picked 

 a few days too soon, for by letting them remain on the 

 trees until a few drop, the remainder swell, measuring 

 better, and the dropped ones go to the evaporator, so 

 that, altogether, we get a better profit. Nevertheless, 

 this getting the peach off the tree, at just the right time, 

 requires great experience and good judgment, and, of 

 the two errors, picking them too hard will be the least 

 costly. The peaches are picked at random, in the 

 orchard, as to size, but with care as to condition, and 

 most varieties will require going over at least three times, 

 on as many different days. As they are picked they are 

 taken to the peach house, which may be a temporary 

 structure in the orchard or near it, or to the farm-barn, 

 or granary. Here they are sorted into grades, and the Del- 



