STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETT. Ill 



clean on each one, and keeping finished work all the time. On the 

 outmost brandies pick the apples from the terminal end first, as the 

 motion of the branch from picking is liable to shake off those from 

 the extreme end. Moreover, where three apples are tucked ou closely 

 together pick the best one first — make this an invariable rule always, 

 so that if b}' mischance one falls, it will be the smaller and inferior 

 one. Never twist or jeik an apple from the limb, but, grasping it 

 from the bottom, lift up on it gently and quickly. Tlie apple loosens 

 in an instant without having disturbed its near neighbors. Having 

 gathered your tree, all the apples having been put into the same 

 barrels to be sorted, then pick up those that are upon the ground by 

 themselves, and, as Artemas Ward said, "move on." It is a trade, 

 a science, as I have said, to pick a tree — the New Brunswickers call 

 it "pulling" apples — and one that some men can never acquire. 

 Boys make the best pickers, I think, where they will give heed to it. 

 A bright city boy, whom I picked up last fall to pick apples for me, 

 picked four barrels from one tree and did not drop or knock off" but 

 five apples while doing it. How many apples can a man pick in a 

 day? I judge that ten barrels is a good day's work. But Mr. E. 

 K. Whitney of Harrison told me that he took his boy home from 

 Bates College to help him gather apples, last fall, and he picked forty 

 barrels in one day, just to see what he could do. Bates is not an 

 agricultural college, but I doubt if Orono could send out a boy who 

 could do better. 



If the apples are to be barrelled in the fall, the work of sorting 

 and barrelhng comes next. But whether they are barrelled or not 

 will depend upon the early demand for them. We will assume they 

 are to be put up as soon as picked, or within a few days, and will 

 begin sorting up the pile which has been brought from the orchard. 

 No. I's and No. 2's together. We want No. 1 apples. Now, what 

 constitutes a No. 1 apple, that is to say, a first-class marketable 

 apple? This question will be decided, somewhat, by the conditions 

 of the season, a large yield or otherwise, and by demand and supply. 

 In some years that would pass for a No. 1 apple, which in other years 

 would be at once discarded and put into the barrel of "seconds." A 

 No. 1 apple must be of good size, fair, unbruised, have the stem 

 attached, and be free from worm holes. Size is of course a com- 

 parative qualit}', but a first-class apple should not be a small one. 

 An a})ple having a bruise or scratch upon it should never be included 

 in a barrel of No. I's ; and all apples that fall in picking, however 



