1454 The Vegetable Industry 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 



