992 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The following account of apple picking and packing in Nova Scotia 

 was kindly written for me by the Rev. F. J. H. Axford, who some time 

 ago won a prize of twenty-five dollars offered for the best packed ten 

 barrels of apples on their arrival in England, the fruit sold 21. per barrel. 



Apple Picking and Packing in Nova Scotia, Canada. 



To pick an apple, hold it firmly between the fingers and thumb, turn 

 it upwards towards the top and centre of the tree, pressing fingers or 

 thumb as convenient on the stem at its union with the branch ; if ripe it 



will remove easily without shaking off 

 others, which pulling will certainly cause 

 to fall. 



Steps and ladders of various lengths 

 are used. The kind of ladder preferred 

 is brought to a point at the top, as being 

 lighter and more easily pushed among 

 the branches, and for greater security is 



Fig. 234. — Bpbay-pump mounted oh Whbelbabbow, 



provided with an iron hook to hook over a branch, the object being to 

 prevent the springing up of the branch when the weight of fruit is gathered, 

 and the danger of the ladder and the picker falling, from lack of support. 

 If the trees are very high, twenty or thirty feet or more, the picker may use 

 a rope and lower his basket over a branch through the centre to someone 

 below to empty it ; this saves a lot of travelling up and down the ladder 

 and shaking the ladder, but can only be done in a well-pruned tree. 



The receptacles for picking in are usually baskets holding from a peck- 

 to a half-bushel, with handles constructed to fall like that of a bucket ; 

 this is for ease in emptying it into the barrel, which is used for taking the 

 fruit from the orchard. Some of late have introduced a canvas or duck 

 basket, which, when painted, is stiff, but more pliable in the barrel — the 

 essential point being to have the handle so as to fall to one side. 



The barrel is the same as that used for transportation, and holds 

 about two and a half bushels, made either of hard or soft wood, now of a 

 standard size, viz. twenty-seven inches from end to end, and nearly cylin- 

 drical. 



