10 HARVESTING, STORING, AND MARKETING 



growers make their orchard trucks from hea\y second-hand 

 cars. Others use equipment which is specially designed by a 

 manufacturer of farm machinery. Wide racks to hold the 

 packages should be provided. 



Containers in which to pack the fruit are treated later. The 

 grower will naturally, however, inventory his supply on hand 

 and order his requirements, including graders or other ma- 

 chinery, for the coming season, when he is arranging for the 

 equipment for his picking operations. A considerable saving 

 may usually be made by ordering early in the season. 



(c) Securing an Adequate Supply of Labor, In established 

 orchard regions, practically all workers have had experience in 

 harvesting the crop. In addition to the labor which is resident 

 in the section throughout the year, hundreds of roving workers, 

 both men and women, may come in for the picking season. 

 Frequently they return year after year and form a valuable 

 source of supply. The grower should have a nucleus of respon- 

 sible resident workers on whom he can rely. He may com- 

 plete his picking gang from this floating help. 



In determining the amount of help needed, the grower must 

 be governed by the normal picking dates of his varieties, the 

 crop of each variety in a given year, and the amount of time at 

 his disposal to complete the picking operation. Such factors 

 as the location of the orchard, on steep or level land, and the 

 height of the trees will also enter in. 



Picking is done by the day or by the piece. Picking by 

 the bushel will take more fruit from the trees in a given length 

 of time, but often it results in careless handling and serious 

 injury to the apples. Where the quantity to be picked is not 

 great, day labor well supervised will give better results ; where 

 large quantities must be handled, the contract system, even 

 more carefully supervised, is preferable. The quantity picked 

 in a day will vary with many factors, as height of trees, how 

 full trees are, size of fruit, the ease with which it separates 

 from the spurs, etc. Under the piecework plan in the older 

 fruit sections with large and high trees, 50 to 60 bushels per 



