1454 Tur Veceraste Inpustry In New York State 
sprouts are picked into bags and carried to the packing house or 
“sprout house,” where they are packed in berry-boxes in the man- 
ner described in a following paragraph. 
As freezing weather sets in, usually early in December, the 
plants are cut off near the ground with a corn hoe and hauled to 
some convenient place near the packing shed for stacking. A 
somewhat sheltered place, as an orchard, makes an excellent stack- 
ing ground, for the cold winds of winter are more likely to injure 
the sprouts than mere frost. The plants are stood upright on the 
ground as close together as possible, and a light covering of sea- 
weed placed over them. A few inches of this material affords 
admirable protection, for it is too porous to cause heating, yet an 
excellent insulator. It should be dry when used. A covering of 
soil is much too heating. Freezing does not injure the sprouts if 
they are thawed gradually before handling, as in a cellar, but 
alternate freezing and thawing spoils them. A few growers trim 
off some of the lower leaves before hauling from the field, but 
most of them put the plants in the stack without trimming. The 
stacks are only one layer deep, and are commonly made about a 
rod wide, and as long as required. 
After the plants are stacked the sprouts may be picked at leis- 
ure through the winter, adjusting the work to the markets and the 
steady employment of labor. The packing houses are provided 
with heat and light; when other tasks fill the day the picking is 
often done at night, from half past five to ten or eleven o'clock. 
Early sprouts especially are packed at night, the day being con- 
sumed in picking them. Upon being removed from the stack, the 
plants are divested of leaves and tops, and merely the stumps with 
sprouts attached are brought to the house. The pickers sit at a 
table with sprouts and berryboxes before them. The sprouts are 
removed from the stump with a small knife, such knives as paring, 
budding, shoemakers’ and jackknives being variously employed for 
this purpose. It is usually necessary to cut through the leaf-base 
in order to sever a sprout. The stumps are found to be good feed 
for stock, and are largely employed for that purpose. The sprouts 
having been removed from the stump, they are “ shucked” or 
freed from the outer dry or yellow leaves, and placed in quart 
