185. Dwarf trees usually bear higher quality fruit than standard trees, are 

 easier to spray and picK from, but need so much attention that it is not best to 

 plant them unless crowded for room 



186. The fruit cannot be reached, even on tip-toe. At h 

 is apt to regret having headed trees very high. These trees 

 tage have been headed three feet lower 



arvesting time one 

 might with advan- 



The Home Storage of Fruits— By s. w. Fletcher 



Mich. Agric. 

 College 



PICKING AND HANDLING, A SUBJECT WHICH EVERYONE WHO GROWS FRUIT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT 

 —HOW TO INSURE PLENTY OF FRESH, SOUND FRUIT AND PRESERVE IT ALL WINTER AND SPRING 



Photographs by the author and from the Horticultural Department of Cornell University 



MANY people lose a large part of the 

 product of the home orchard because 

 they do not pick and store the fruit properly. 

 Only last winter I saw a man throwing apples 

 into his cellar with a coal shovel. He had 



187. To test ripening of pears, grasp the fruit !iKe 

 this and bend up. If the stem snaps off easily and 

 smoothly where it joins the spur, the fruit may be 

 picKed even though not at all soft 



shaken off all that could not be picked easily 

 from the ground, dumped them into a spring- 

 less farm wagon and jolted them across a 

 rockv. pasture to the house cellar, there to be 

 shoveled out like so many potatoes. I asked 

 the man if he did not think it would pay him 

 to give his fruit a little better care. "What's 

 the use?" he replied. "My fruit does not 

 keep well any way. It's all gone by Christ- 

 mas. I lay it to the poor soil on which it is 

 grown." I did not tell him what I laid it to. 

 Most people have more respect for the ten- 

 derness of fruit; but there is still a woeful 

 lack of appreciation of the extreme suscep- 

 tibility of fruit to injury from careless hand- 

 ling. Commercial growers, as a rule, are 



more careful with their fruit than amateurs, 

 because the returns from a single shipment 

 of bruised fruit are a convincing argument 

 against carelessness. It is a shame for a 

 man to raise good fruit only to lose, because 

 of improper handling, a part of what it might 

 be worth to him. 



TIME OF PICKING AFFECTS QUALITY 



The time of picking makes a great differ- 

 ence in the quality and the keeping of fruits. 

 The various kinds, and sometimes different 

 varieties of the same kind, require different 

 treatment in this respect. Experience is the 

 best guide, because the ripening changes of 

 fruit vary with soil, climate, variety, season 

 and a dozen other factors. 



In general, the greener the fruit when 

 picked the longer it will keep, and also the 

 poorer it will be in quality. All our com- 

 mon orchard fruits, with the exception of 

 most varieties of pears, reach their highest 

 quality only when they are allowed to ripen 

 in the natural way — on the trees. The sooner 

 they are picked before this time the more 

 likely they are to be sour, astringent, dry, 

 stringy, mealy, insipid, and everything else 

 that is inexcusable in a dessert fruit. The 

 home fruit grower can let his fruit ripen on 

 the trees, and secure all the high colors, 

 flavors and aromas that develop during the 

 final stages of ripening. He gets infinitely 

 more satisfaction from his fruit than those 

 who are forced to buy in the general market 

 fruit that was taken from the tree while yet 

 more or less immature, and before the ex- 

 quisite flavor of a fresh, tree-ripened fruit 

 have developed. The peaches, pears, plums 

 and apricots that come to Eastern markets 

 from the Pacific coast are often picked two 

 weeks before they would be mature if allowed 

 to remain on the trees. No wonder they are 

 128 



not always of as high quality when they reach 

 us as our own tree-ripened fruit. Usually the 

 home orchardist'-wjll let his fruit ripen on the 

 trees, except, of course, winter varieties of 

 apples and pears. In some cases early pick- 

 ing may be advantageous, especially for the 

 purpose of prolonging the season of a certain 

 variety or saving it from biped or insect 

 enemies, even though it may be at the ex- 

 pense of quality. 



THE CRITICAL TIME TO GATHER 



Apples. — Some summer and fall varieties 

 of apples ripen well on the trees, but most of 

 them should be picked when they are well 

 colored and have reached full size, but are 

 not yet soft; i. e., they may be mature but 

 not ripe. Summer apples especially are 

 likely to water-core or rot if not picked before 

 fully ripe. In the neighborhood of Boston, 

 growers of Williams, a summer variety unex- 



188. A peach may be picKed when it feels 

 springy or at all soft. The best quality fruits, however, 

 are those that fully mature on the tree 



