Kinds of Ladders 



375 



sion ladders are also used, but they are usually more 

 cumbersome and more difficult to manage than the light 

 pointed-top pattern. In most other orchards, however, 

 a step-ladder of the ordinary pattern, but perhaps some- 

 what taller (run- 

 ning from 10 to 

 even 12 feet high), 

 is all that will be 

 required. This 

 ladder should have 

 a flat top, and also 

 a movable shelf on 

 its back, where 

 baskets may be 

 placed. The facility 

 of picking fruit is 

 very much in- 

 creased if the trees 

 have been well 

 trained and pruned. 

 Dwarf pears should 

 rarely reach a 

 height of more than 

 12 to 15 feet; and 

 if pear and apple 

 trees are planted 

 sufficiently far 

 apart, and are kept 

 open at the base, the pickers can reach most of the fruit 

 by chmbing. In the picking of apples and pears, nothing 

 answers the purpose so well as a strong, nimble boy who is 

 not afraid to climb. In many orchards the long and 

 cumbersome ladders may be almost entirely dispensed 



Fig. 140. Various types of ladder arrangements. 



