PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION, 69 



jarring the iimbs cause the nuts to fall on the sheets. Always strike the 

 limb sideways for if you strike a glancing blow down the limb you will 

 bring your chances of next year's crop with you. The object is to get 

 the nuts and disturb the foliage as little as possible. Of course, you 

 will get some nuts and twigs with the leaves any way. When the nuts 

 are all off the tree, the men toss their poles to the next tree and then 

 gather up the sheets, one man at each end of each sheet, and lifting 

 them, carry them to the next tree, where the process is repeated. That 

 is what they should do, but if you are not watching they will drag the 

 sheets. If the time saved is worth more than the extra wear and tear 

 on the sheets, then by all means drag them. When enough nuts are in 

 the sheets to fill several lug boxes, the boxes are placed on the ground 

 side by side and the sheets are emptied of their burden. These boxes 

 are then stacked up so as to be easily seen and the teamster gathers them 

 up and hauls them in to the shed, where they are run through the huller 

 and then placed in the hoppers ready for the hand sorting. After sort- 

 ing they are placed on trays or board platforms in the dry-yard to cure. 

 They should be cured until the kernel will break without bending. 

 Then they are ready for bleaching; but be sure they are thoroughly 

 cured before bleaching or the kernel will absorb the sulphur and be 

 spoiled. When properly cured, any means may be employed which 

 Avill thoroughly dampen the shell, but not penetrate to the kernel and 

 then be subjected to the fumes of burning sulphur for a period of thirty 

 minutes to one or two hours owing to the variety and condition of the 

 nut. A yellowish white color of the shell is demanded by the trade. 

 Do not over sulphur. TVhen sufficiently bleached they are removed 

 and placed in the sun for a few hours to dry and then sacked up ready 

 for market. My present plan of bleaching is as follows: When cured 

 we place them on fruit trays about one inch thick and run them into 

 a bin of the sulphur house which has been connected with a steam boiler 

 (5 horse power), and then low pressure steam (20 pounds) is turned 

 into the house for a half or three quarters of an hour. Then they are 

 removed and quickly run in another bin, which has a sulphur charge 

 ready fired, and bleached from forty minutes to an hour, when they are 

 removed and immediately sacked. The same help will bleach twice as 

 many in a day with steam as without it. Be careful not to use high 

 pressure steam or you will cook the nuts. For this valuable method I 

 am indebted to Mr. Reed of Suisun. Only standard almond sacks 

 should be used, and while they seem expensive, they are a commercial 

 success because they weigh two and a half pounds and no tare is taken 

 by the trade if you use these sacks. 



The almonds may also be shelled instead of hulled, as there are 

 machines for shelling which do very good work. The present year our 

 crop was light and we shelled our entire crop of about twelve tons of 

 clean kernels. We figured better prices this way. Nearly all the 

 imported nuts are shelled before importing. If you shell they are not 

 to be bleached, and you have all of the shells to work back into the soil 

 as material for humus, which is no small item. For a commercial propo- 

 sition if you can get the same money for your product shelled, saving 

 thereby half the hauling and return half the tonnage to your soil which 

 you would ship off if the product were hulled, better do it. 



