Baskets and Wagons. 389 
have both hands free. There are various special 
practices to facilitate apple-picking, which are not 
proper subjects for discussion in a general fruit- 
book. 
There are various appliances which may be used 
in the field to facilitate the picking of fruit, some 
of which may be bricfly mentioned. In the first 
place, the fruit picker should provide himself with 
an ample supply of crates or baskets, or whatever 
other receptacle may be used in the field. These 
receptacles should be strong and durable, so that 
they may be used year after year; this is espe- 
cially true of the baskets and erates which are used 
for the picking of the heavier fruits, like pears, 
apples and grapes. It is generally advisable to take 
the fruits to the packing house in the very baskets or 
boxes in which they are placed from the tree, thereby 
avoiding unnecessary handling of the fruit. In the 
case of winter apples, however, it is sometimes ad- 
missible to carefully pour the apples from the round- 
bottomed baskets, into which they are picked, into 
bushel baskets, or sometimes into crates such as are 
used for potatoes. In any case it is always advis- 
able, in the best quality of fruit, to have all these 
baskets or crates lined with burlaps. 
The best wagons for use in orchards are those 
which are of the platform style, with low and very 
broad-tired wheels, and the platform extending over 
the wheels. Such wagons are not only capable of 
carrying a very large load, but do not eut up the 
ground; they are easily drawn and managed, and 
