232 MANUAL OF AMERICAN GRAPE-GROWING 



texture of the pulp and a slight thickening of the juice so that 

 it is more or less sticky ; fourth, the ends of the stems turn 

 from green to brown ; fifth, the berries pull more readily from 

 their stems ; sixth, the seeds are free or more nearly free from 

 the pulp and usually turn from green to brown. 



Picking appliances. 



But few appliances are needed in picking grapes. Shears 

 are a necessity. These are of special make and can be bought 

 from dealers in horticultural supplies, costing from 75 cents to 

 $1. Some growers, after picking, pack the fruit in the field 

 in the receptacles in which it is to go to market. The greater 

 number, however, pick in trays which are taken to the packing- 

 house and allowed to stand until the fruit is wilted before 

 packing for shipment. Trays may be of several sizes and 

 shapes, but are usually shallow flats holding from twenty-five 

 to thirty-five pounds. The picked fruit is taken from the vine- 

 yard to the packing-shed in a wagon with flexible springs to 

 prevent jarring and jolting. Large growers usually have 

 specially built one-horse platform wagons, the front wheels of 

 which pass under the platform. 



Picking accounts. 



It is no small matter to keep a picking account with pickers. 

 Business-like growers use one of several kinds of tickets or tags 

 in keeping accounts. Probably the most common method is to 

 give a ticket to the picker when the receptacle of grapes is 

 delivered, the grower either keeping half of the original or a 

 duplicate of it. Objections to ticket systems are that the 

 pickers often lose the tickets, are irregular in returning them, 

 or exchange them with other pickers. To obviate the dis- 

 advantages of tickets, some growers use tags which bear the 

 picker's name and are attached to his person. These tags 

 have marginal numbers or divisions which are canceled by a 



