110 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



now. Among the first requisites, there must be a good suppW of 

 ladders — not your lumbering, back-breaking ladders, witli sides four 

 bj^ four, and rungs as large as a stick of stove wood, which it will 

 take two men to elevate in position upon a tree, and will want a 

 horse and pair of wheels to move about the orchard — but a strong, 

 light, well-built ladder, wide at the base, to stand firm, and narrow 

 at the top, in order to run in among the branches with no injury to 

 the apples ; a ladder which a man can take in one hand and walk off 

 with, raising to the tree easily, built of smart wood, and painted. 

 Don't have these ladders too long, but graduate them to the height 

 of your trees. Step-ladders are also useful for the branches that 

 cannot be reached conveniently from the ground. Next, you want 

 a number of picking baskets — those which have the adjustable bail, 

 like that of a water pail, are the best; because, in placing the 

 basket of apples into the barrel the bail will tip back, allowing the 

 basket to be inverted, when it can be removed, the bail or handle 

 lying back over the side of the barrel out of the way. These 

 baskets should all be lined with old carpeting or sacking, so that the 

 fiuit may be placed in them without fear of giving them a scratch 

 or surface bruise, which is sure to discolor and injure it. Furnish 

 each basket with a hook, b}' means of which it may be fastened to 

 the rungs of the ladder or branches of the tree, leaving both hands 

 free lor business. Now we are ready to begin. 



In the first place, pick from the lower branches all apples that ma}' 

 be reached from the ground. On some trees, trained low, this will 

 be considerable. My wife, who is a better farmer than I am, has 

 picked two barrels each, from many of m}' trees, standing on the 

 ground, without uncomfortable reaching. Next, with the step ladder 

 placed under the tree, gather all that can be reached from it among 

 the inner branches. Now the ladders will come into use upon the 

 outer limbs and extreme top of the tree, the stout branches making 

 a good stage for the pickers' feet — I say stout branches, for remem- 

 ber that broken hips almost invariably lie concealed in small, weak 

 ones. When the business of picking is in full blast one or two men 

 should be constantly upon the ground to assist in receiving and 

 emptying baskets from the pickers in the tree and thus save time, 

 while a sulliciency of baskets, for exchange, should also be provided. 

 Move about the tree carefully and steadily, or man}' apples will be 

 knocked off and lost — as all apples that fall go into No. 2's or even 

 ciders. In picking, follow out the branches from the trunk, picking 



