52 



retained in tiie sack by a large hook and 

 eye arramgement. Gathering baskets are 

 lined with sacking. 



In gathering fruit from bush or cordon 

 apples, the fruit can be placed direct into 

 half-bushel or bushel baskets in order 

 to prevent bruising; careful growers place 

 wood wool at the bottom of the basket 

 and a strip of corrugated brown paper 

 round the inside. 



Apples are sorted into three or more 

 grades, such as " fancy," firsts, seconds, 

 the diseased or pecked fruit together with 

 the very, very small ones being taken out, 

 the latter can be used for feeding animals. 



Fallen fruit should be picked up as soon 

 as convenient, washed if necessary, sorted 

 and carefully packed, and sent to market 

 as soon as possible, as " Falls." The bulk 

 of the apples, picked according to season 

 of the variety, go to market within a day 

 or two of picking. As a rule apples should 

 not be sent to market before their season, 

 unless the price is good, and keeping 

 apples should be stored till mature, to 

 avoid putting these on the market at the 

 season of early kinds. 



Storing. 



Varieties that should be stored will keep 

 well in half-bushel and bushel boxes or 

 baskets, through which the air can circu- 

 late, all diseased and pecked fruits being 

 taken out. Apples keep best where dark 

 or nearly so, and cool, the cellar or shed 

 should be frost proof, with a natural earth 

 floor which prevents the air getting too 

 dry; concrete floors are good, though not 

 quite as good as earth, but are rat proof. 

 A very good leaflet on Fruit Storage has 

 been issued by the Board of Agriculture 

 and can be obtained free. The apples 

 need sorting over from time to time (say, 

 once a month), to take out any that are 

 decaying. 



Packing. 



When apples are packed in bushel or 

 half-bushel baskets for market, one or two 

 large sheets of blue or pink paper are laid 

 on the inside of the basket, which will 

 be held in place by the fruit. After filling 

 the basket the paper is folded over the 

 fruit; this is covered over with straw, or 

 lucerne, with two splints (usually pieces 

 of hazel or cob-nut wood) placed cross- 

 wise to retain the fruit. Some of the most 



enterprising growers pack their choicest 

 apples in bushel boxes. Boxing is chiefly 

 suited to the best and prettiest dessert 

 apples, unless apples are wanted to travel 

 long distances. The boxes are packed 

 with the apples that will form the top 

 layer when opened placed in first. The 

 sorting tables are lined with sacking to 

 avoid bruising the apples. Many large 

 growers use machines which grade and sort 

 the fruit as to size. To the late Mr. 

 Arthur Miskin of Ladd's Court, Chart Sut- 

 ton, near Maidstone, is due the credit of 

 being pioneer in the use of bushel boxes 

 for apples ; he was also probably the first 

 in England to use lime-sulphur spray in 

 his orchards. A bushel box will hold 45 

 of the finest Queen or Lord Derby apples, 

 135 good Beauty of Bath, or 180 good 

 Duchess Favourite. The weight of apples 

 in a bushel box varies with the variety and 

 size of the fruit, thus Gladstone and 

 Beauty of Bath each weighed 361bs., whilst 

 Bramley's Seedling weighed 421bs. Pre- 

 vious to the war, some of the wood for 

 the boxes came from Sweden, in slats, 

 branded with name and trade mark of 

 the fruit grower, the material costing 6d. 

 per box. It took about four minutes for 

 a quick man to nail the pieces of a box 

 together, a framework being used to save 

 time. The weight of the box was about 

 81bs. NaUs dipped in cement water are 

 used, bought ready prepared. A mechani- 

 cal press to hold the box and press it for 

 nailing is necessary for neat and quick 

 work. The methods of apple packing will 

 be dealt with in another article. Some 

 Kentish growers pack their cooking apples 

 in barrels, and find it a good 'method. 



As to the length of time apple trees 

 worked on Paradise roots will live, it was 

 once said 20 to 60 years, but it seems pro- 

 bable that they will live as long as on the 

 crab or " free " stocks, as there are large 

 healthy standard trees on Paradise stock 

 nearly 50 years old at Messrs. Bunyard's 

 nurseries near Maidstone. 



As to crops of individual trees, I have 

 seen in Kent the following approximate 

 crops : — On a Bismarck tree fifteen years 

 old,half standard on crab stock, 10 bushels 

 of apples; on a Cox's Orange Pippin, 

 seven years planted, 1 bushel of fruit ; on 

 Bramley's Seedling, well established, 

 mature trees, 6 or 7 bushels per tree, but 



