46 FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



the windfalls the orchardist can tell better than in any 

 other way when the picking is beginning to be pressing. 



II. PICKING RECEPTACLES 



Strawberries are usually picked into the quart 

 boxes in which they are shipped. In case they are to 

 be sorted the quart cups may still be used for picking. 

 Six or eight of these are held in a carrier, and a 

 carrier is given to each picker. Raspberries, black- 

 berries, gooseberries, currants, etc., are commonly 

 handled in much the same way. However, all such 

 "berries as are solid enough to bear handling and some 

 pouring may be picked into any convenient basket, 

 and are then transferred to the shipping packages at 

 the sorting table or in the packing shed. Cherries, 

 peaches, and plums are either picked directly into the 

 shipping packages, or are put into convenient baskets 

 and brought to the sorting table. Whether a man 

 adopts the one plan or the other depends largely on 

 the help he has in picking. If the fruit runs fairly 

 even and the pickers are competent to do the grading, 

 the two operations can usually be advantageously com- 

 bined. In case the pickers can not be trusted to grade 

 and pack the fruit, it is evident that the pickers' 

 packages must be delivered at a sorting table, where 

 the fruit is graded and repacked. 



Apples are always picked clean off the tree as the 

 work goes on, except in case of summer apples, which 

 should be harvested in successive pickings. Some 

 pickers prefer to pick into a half -bushel basket, which 

 should be lined with burlap or sacking to prevent 

 bruising the fruit. Other pickers prefer to use a sack 



