Harvesting 67 



extent by the operation of pruning. Peaches especially 

 set a far larger number of fruit buds than the tree can 

 possibly bring to maturity, and thinning by removal of 

 some of the fruit producing wood saves a large amount 

 of labor later on. All of the fruit of the peach is produced 

 on wood of the last year's growth, and the middle portions 

 of such branches will have one or two buds at each node. 

 The thinning should be done before the peaches get any 

 larger than a pigeon egg, and need to be thinned out so 

 that the fruit on any one branch is separated by at least 

 six inches from any other fruit on the same limb. 



In thinning stone fruits the work can be done by pull- 

 ing the fruits off, but with apples and .pears it is safest 

 to clip the fruit with sharp pointed shears, as if pulled 

 there is too much liability of breaking off the entire spur. 



Harvesting 



The harvesting of a fruit crop is only one of the sev- 

 eral important operations connected with fruit growing, 

 and yet it is an operation which has a great deal of in- 

 fluence over the final market value, of the fruit, and takes 

 a rank only second to spraying. If fruit has been care- 

 fully sprayed, three-fourths of the loss that occurs by the 

 lime the fruit reaches the consumer will be due to care- 

 lessness in picking. 



To know when to pick a fruit is a fine art. To know 

 how to pick a fruit can be learned by practice, but not 

 every one can or will learn how to do the operation with 

 all of the care that is necessary in handling a high class 

 crop. The commercial fruit markets of today demand 

 fruit that is in excellent condition, and will pay prices 

 that warrant all of the care that the grower can give the 

 fruit during the harvest. 



All kinds of fruit must be picked by hand, rather than 

 by raking off the tree, or shaking onto the ground to be 

 picked up later on. Fruit that is picked from the tree 

 must be laid carefully into a basket, bucket or bag and car- 

 ried to the packers with the least possible shaking about. 



