FOR PROFIT. 137 



protection so that no rain injures them, and not too 

 much air. In this way Apples will soon set up a rapid 

 heat, and in about three weeks from the lime of laying 

 down will be ready for market, and will probably 

 realise quite as much money per bushel as the later 

 more carefully-handed gatherings. It should be quite 

 understood that I do not advocate the foregoing 

 method if fruit is meant to be stored for any length 

 of time. Lammas, Chalk, Hessle, and early Pears 

 can be forwarded in the same manner. 



Gathering. — The sack or flap pockets so generally 

 used should be discarded when gathering the best 

 fruit, and a handled basket, such as is used for cherry 

 picking be substituted ; three gallons will be found a 

 handy size. This basket must be lined with a piece 

 of old sacking or some similar soft substance, and 

 have a hook attached with which to hang it on the 

 ladder, or a limb of the tree. The first fruits picked 

 should be carefully placed by hand in the base of the 

 basket, not dropped in, and throughout the whole 

 operation the picker should take care his basket is 

 never violently jolted about, or, in fact, nothing done 

 to bruise the fruits. When full, the small baskets 

 should be emptied into bushel or half-bushel sieves ; 

 the Apples being carefully run through the hands, not 

 roughly shot into the sieves. With Wellingtons 

 especially, every Apple should be separately handled 

 in transferring them. 



For conveying fruit to the main store, a spring van 

 must be used ; a little loose litter in the bottom will 

 save bruising in transit. In the store a good bed of 

 clean wheat straw— none other is good enough for the 

 purpose — should be laid on the floor, care being taken 



