SEVEN] OUT IN THE ORCHARD 
Apples, and indeed all fruit, should be handled 
like eggs. If a picker drops or tosses them into a 
basket, even three inches, he should be discharged. 
Such handling bruises a few cells, and at once 
begins decay. You will often hear people say, “My 
apples are not keeping well.’ If you notice, those 
people will say the same thing another year. The 
year has seldom anything to do with it. The trou- 
ble is in the handling of the fruit. After being laid 
in the basket, it should be taken out by hand into 
a wagon, upon clean blankets or soft hay, then 
taken to the cellar, and after careful sorting, be laid 
into the bins from the baskets. It should be put 
in storage just as fast as picked. At each move 
handle softly and kindly, and after that, if graded 
properly, the high grades will not rot in a cool stor- 
age room. 
Grading should leave apples in at least three as- 
sortments. No. 1 should be absolutely perfect 
fruit, to be stored or barreled. This grade should 
go with honor. It should stand for all that you 
are. If you lie in your fruit-grading you are not 
to be trusted anywhere, and you cannot trust your- 
self. Store your fruit in bins about fifteen inches 
in depth—certainly not more than two feet in 
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