34 



highly important. The man assigned to it should be the best on 

 the job. 



In filling apple barrels, the work begins at what is really the 

 top of the barrel. The head is put in and the barrel turned bottom 

 side up on it. The first layer of fruit is put in by facing, stem 

 downward, carefully on this inverted head. Good well-colored 

 specimens are selected as facers, but they should not give a mis- 

 leading idea of the general contents of the barrel. Usually a sec- 

 ond row of facers is put in, stems down, in the same way. The 

 remainder of the barrel is filled in with loose apples. These are 

 thoroughly shaken down three or four times during the process 

 of filling. Finally the barrel is sometimes finished by facing the 

 last row in the bottom (that is on top as the barrel is filled). 

 When the filling is complete the barrel should be somewhat more 

 than full. The fruit should stand up two or three inches above 

 the chines. This amount will be taken up in pressing the head or 

 the bottom in place. The bottom is pressed in with a screw or 

 lever press, is nailed in place and the barrel is ready for the 

 market. 



Apple Barrels. 



Customarily the package for selling apples is the barrel. There 

 are various forms of barrels in use in this country, the two most 

 common ones being the hundred quart barrel and the ninety-six 

 quart barrel. The National Apple Shippers' Association have 

 adopted the barrel having the following dimensions : stave 28J 

 inches, head 17^ inches, circumference in the middle 64 inches. 

 This is the one hundred quart barrel. There seems to be a ten- 

 dency at the present time to use more of the ninety-six quart 

 barrels. 



The barrel market, however, in the last few years has been a 

 very difficult and unsatisfactory one. The prices have been 

 abnormally high and promise to be higher than ever this season. 

 It seems probable now that good barrels cannot be had anywhere 

 for less than forty cents each. Under these circumstances many 

 poor barrels are being used. Flour barrels are frequently em- 

 ployed and are in great demand. Such barrels should always be 

 very carefully cleaned out before being used. Clean, fresh, un- 

 used barrels are always better. When handling large crops of 

 apples it is doubtless the best practice to buy staves, hoops and 

 heads in quantities, knocked down, and have the barrels made up 

 on the farm by a cooper. At the present prices of barrel stock 

 no great saving can be made in this wa}', but fresh, clean barrels 

 are secured. 



