APPLES 
Ladders 
There are many different types of lad- 
ders, some of them very awkward and 
clumsy. A ladder should be light and 
easily handled, braced strongly, and so 
constructed that it will not’ tip over 
easily. _All joints should be tight so that 
there will be as little wobble to the lad- 
der as possible. For picking the lower 
parts of the tree the short step-ladder, 
three or four feet high, and made rigid, 
is good. For lighter work, the tripod 
step-ladder is fine. It combines lightness 
with ease of operation, and is also very 
strong and solid. In some sections the 
so-called Japanese tripod ladder is used 
to quite an extent. Other ladders, such 
as the rail ladder, consisting of a single 
strong stake with a wide base and rounds 
projecting from it, are used for very high 
work. In the East the wire apple picker 
is sometimes used to pluck some of the 
very highest apples growing in the center 
of the tree; but in the Northwest these 
pickers have been needed very little as 
yet because our trees are lower. 
Fig. 7. Another Type of Portable Orchard 
Ladder which enables the picker to get close 
in to the tree without breaking the branches 
or bruising the fruit. 
—Courtesy Woods & Soule, Payette, Idaho. 
325 
Fig. 8. The Japanese Ladder. 
Picking Boxes ~ 
The picking or lug box should prefer- 
ably be somewhat larger than the packing 
box, in order to keep it separate from 
the latter. This size also has the aa- 
vantage of holding about a packed bushel 
of apples. The box should have slits cut 
in the ends so that the fingers may enter. 
for lifting the box, and these ends prefer- 
ably should be higher than the sides so 
that as one box is set upon the other 
there will be no jamming of the fruit. 
Some orchardists have a very light port- 
able stand which pickers working on the 
ground among the lower branches take 
with them for setting the picking box on. 
The picker then does not have to stoop 
to deposit his fruit in his box, and bruis- 
ing is minimized. 
