HANDLING APPLES FROM TREE TO TABLE 7 



can also be controlled much more effectively if oiled paper is applied 

 soon after the apples are harvested. Unless the oiled paper is applied 

 within a month, or 6 weeks at the most, it is ineffective in controlling 

 scald. Another advantage of prompt packing is that it gives an oppor- 

 tunity to sort out the culls, which not only may be sources of infection 

 by rot organisms but which also take up storage space that may be 

 needed for marketable fruit. 



Practically, however, a large part of the crop is often kept from a few 

 days to several months before it is packed for market. Sometimes this 

 delay is due to lack of packing facilities that will take care of the fruit 

 as fast as it is picked, and sometimes packing is intentionally postponed 

 or spread out. If the apples are particularly susceptible to bitter pit, 

 it may be advisable to delay packing for a month or 6 weeks to give the 

 disease a chance to become manifest so that affected apples can be sorted 

 out. When the delay is for more than a few days, the fruit is ordinarily 

 placed in storage and packed at the convenience of the owner. Although 

 this has some advantages, especially from the standpoint of spreading 

 labor, these are outweighed by the disadvantages. When packing houses 

 are congested and cold-storage space is not available, it is ordinarily pre- 

 ferable to leave the picked fruit in the orchard in the shade of the trees; 

 the boxes should be spaced so that air can circulate freely about them, 

 and the stacks should be covered so as to protect the fruit from direct 

 sunlight and rain (fig. 2). The apples will ripen less rapidly than if 

 stacked in the open in unprotected large piles at the packing house, as 

 is sometimes done (fig. 3). 



Figure 2. — Boxes of apples in the shade of a tree in an orchard. The boxes are covered 

 to protect the fruit from direct sunlight and rain, yet the air can circulate freely 

 about them. 



