130 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



October, 190 5 



193. Why some folK's apples do not Keep well. 

 They are thumped around liKe potatoes. Never pour 

 apples into a barrel — slide them in 



can be allowed, except of fruit that cannot be 

 reached even by the most agile boy. No 

 knocking fruit off with poles. These may 

 do when the fruit is wanted for drying or 

 for cider — though I doubt it — but never 

 when it is destined for the table. Hand 

 picking, and the most scrupulously careful 

 hand picking, must be insisted on in the 

 home orchard. The various picking devices, 

 designed to break or twist off fruit into wire 

 fingers or pass it down through canvas bags, 

 are all impracticable on any large scale. 

 Thev take too much time. Stick to hand 

 picking, if your trees are so shaped as to 

 admit of it. 



It makes a difference how the fruit is 

 separated from the branch. An apple should 

 be separated by slightly twisting the fruit 

 and bending it upward. If it is pulled off, 

 the stem is likely to be broken or pulled out; 

 in either case, the fruit is not likely to keep 

 as well as fruit with stems on; neither does 

 it look as well. Pears are picked in the same 

 way, and always with stems on. In gathering 

 plums and cherries, do not grasp the fruit 

 itself, but the stem, which should always be 

 left on unbroken. The bloom of plums 

 should be preserved, not only because it adds 

 to the attractiveness of the fruit, but also 

 because it prevents the evaporation of the 

 fruit juices. Peaches and apricots are pulled 

 off with a slight twist. 



CONVENIENCES FOR GATHERING 



This is an important problem to the com- 

 mercial grower, but the man who grows a 

 small amount of fruit for home use is not 

 troubled by it ; he uses whatever ladders, bas- 

 kets, etc., are handy. For peaches, apricots, 

 plums and pears and Morello cherries, there 

 :is nothing better than a ten-foot step-ladder. 

 Get one having a one-legged brace ; on sloping 

 ground it stands up better than one with two 

 legs. For apples and sweet cherries and 

 other tall trees, light rung ladders are best. 

 If the ladder is brought into a point at the 



top, like an inverted V, it can be pushed 

 more easily between the branches. A cheap 

 and effective picking ladder can be made at 

 home by nailing rungs on a stout pole of the 

 right length. Climbing around the trees 

 should be avoided as much as possible. 

 There is almost sure to be more or less 

 abrasion of the bark by boots, and these 

 places make ugly wounds. 



For a picking receptacle, any box or basket 

 will do if the fruit is handled carefully enough. 

 A half-bushel splint basket which has been 

 padded with burlaps and provided with an 

 S wire hook is excellent for apples. A still 

 better arrangement, in the opinion of many, 

 is a grain sack slung over the shoulders, with 

 one corner of the mouth caught to one corner 

 of the bottom. If the mouth is held open 

 with a hoop the bag can be filled more easily. 

 Excepting the sack, whatever is used to pick 

 into should be padded. In emptying baskets 

 or sacks do not pour the fruit out roughly. 

 With one hand keep the rolling fruit from 

 bruising and gently sidle it into the receptacle. 

 If fruit has to be carried any distance on a 



194. Apples harvested by the worms of the codlin 

 moth; the grower will have to buy apples in the 

 fall. Harvest time teaches many lessons 



wagon, by all means let it be a spring wagon 

 if possible. These little points mean much 

 in the keeping of fruit, especially apples and 

 pears that are to be stored for winter use. 



THE KIND OF FRUIT TO STORE 



Amateur fruit growers do not make as much 

 use of winter fruit as they should, especially 

 of fall and winter pears. Almost everybody 

 who has a fruit garden puts a few barrels 

 of apples into the cellar, but apparently very 

 few people know how easy it is to have a 

 supply of Anjou, Lawrence, Josephine, 

 Barry, Nelis and other delicious pears from 

 October to April. The pleasures of the 

 fruit garden should not be confined to the 

 summer season; they may be extended 

 throughout the entire year. 



The first essential to this is a wise choice of 

 varieties — select varieties that will ripen in 

 succession and will give fruit to eat every 

 month of the year. This subject was dis- 

 cussed in The Garden Magazine for May. 



The next essential is good fruit to store. 

 Wormy, scabby and bruised fruit, and wind- 

 falls seldom keep well. 



Many people try keeping fruit in their 

 cellar and give it up, blaming the cellar be- 

 cause the fruit keeps poorly. The blame 

 usually lies with them, because they tried to 

 store inferior fruit. Fruit for the storage 

 cellar should be well grown; undersized, 

 knurly fruit does not pay for its keep. It 

 should be well colored and mature. When 

 frost has begun to thin the foliage a little, 

 and the poorer specimens are beginning to 

 drop, the grower should begin to pick his 

 winter fruit. It should be unblemished by 

 worms and scabs, although I do not know 

 that this is more important with winter fruit 

 than with summer fruit; worms and scabs 

 are unsightly and disagreeable at all times. 

 It should be sound, free from any bruise 

 whatever. No windfall can be a first-class 

 fruit. It may seem to be uninjured, but in 

 storage the place where it struck the ground 

 will decay. No fruit that is beaten or shaken 

 off should go into the cellar. If any but 

 perfectly sound, fair, mature fruit is stored 

 the result is likely to be disappointing. 



handling fruit for storage 



Many people still believe that winter 

 apples should be piled upon the ground in 

 the orchard and allowed to sweat for a few 

 days before being put into the cellar. This is 

 not necessary, although it is often a con- 

 venience to the commercial grower who packs 

 in the orchard. The piles are liable to 

 develop heat and decay. If possible, handle 

 but once fruit that is to be stored; that is, 

 pick it into the boxes or barrels that will be 

 put into the cellar. This requires that the 

 fruit be graded when picked. This method 

 is more practical, as a rule, for fall and 

 winter pears than for apples. Many barrel 



195. Bartletts ripening in the hay-mow— the way 

 we used lo do it when we were boys. (Not always, 

 however, were the fruits from the home orchard) 



