70 The Fruit-Growers Guide-Book 



home orchard, or where cider apples? are being harvested, 

 but have no place in the orchard where fancy fruit is being 

 grown. The principal objection to mechanical pickers is 

 that they invariably pull the stems out of the apples and 

 subject the fruit to more or less bruising and puncture the 

 skin. 



Buckets and Ladders 



Tin or galvanized iron buckets are the best things to 

 use in picking apples, and each bucket should be provided 

 with a large, strong wire hook attached to the bail, in 

 order that the bucket can be hung on a limb or on the 

 ladder while being filled. It is better to have the bucket 

 on the ladder or on a limb, rather than to be attached to 

 the picker, as the fruit is subjected to less damage from 

 bruising. Baskets holding a half bushel or less, and which 

 are well padded inside, are very satisfactory for picking 

 apples into, but are more unwieldy than the bucket. Some 

 persons use buckets that have a canvas bottom which can 

 be loosened so that the apples roll into the lug box or on 

 the packing table. They answer very well in the hands of 

 careful pickers, but the fruit is liable to be bruised by 

 being set down on hard objects. Picking bags and baskets 

 also serve their purpose very well in the hands of careful 

 pickers, but as it makes it necessary for the pickers to 

 carry the fruit about with them at every move, there is 

 great danger of the fruit being bruised. 



Ladders are a necessity, and the best ones, except for 

 very high trees, are step ladders with three legs. Such a 

 ladder will set more solidly than a ladder with four legs. 

 The best for high trees are light ladders with two rails so 

 shaped that the rails meet at the top and are continued up- 

 ward for a couple or three feet. Ladders of this sort slip 

 into the branches easily and are strong and substantial. 

 It is an advantage in picking apples to have the picking 

 crew graded according to height. Some of the pickers 

 should work on the ground, picking no fruit they cannot 

 reach easily from the ground. Another set of pickers 

 sliculd work from six-foot ladders, and the remainder work 



