SEVEN] OUT IN THE ORCHARD 



Apples, and indeed all fruit, should be handled 

 like eggs. If a picker drops or tosses them into a 

 basket, even three inches, he should be discharged. 

 Such handling bruises a few cells, and at once 

 begins decay. You will often hear people say, " My 

 apples are not keeping well." If you notice, those 

 people will say the same thing another year. The 

 year has seldom anything to do with it. The trou- 

 ble is in the handling of the fruit. After being laid 

 in the basket, it should be taken out by hand into 

 a wagon, upon clean blankets or soft hay, then 

 taken to the cellar, and after careful sorting, be laid 

 into the bins from the baskets. It should be put 

 in storage just as fast as picked. At each move 

 handle softly and kindly, and after that, if graded 

 properly, the high grades will not rot in a cool stor- 

 age room. 



Grading should leave apples in at least three as- 

 sortments. No. 1 should be absolutely perfect 

 fruit, to be stored or barreled. This grade should 

 go with honor. It should stand for all that you 

 are. If you lie in your fruit-grading you are not 

 to be trusted anywhere, and you cannot trust your- 

 self. Store your fruit in bins about fifteen inches 

 in depth — certainly not more than two feet in 



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