English Orchards. 



325 



thrust it into bags tied round the pickers' waists ; the apples 

 are afterwards jerked out of the bags into baskets, and, after 

 being conveyed in jolting carts or waggons, are ultimately 

 poured from the baskets into heaps in a barn, granary, or 

 outhouse. The fruit is sadly bruised by this rough treatment, 

 and much of it often decays or shows discoloration in the 

 storage. If gathered ripe and despatched to market at once, 

 the fruit is treated in exactly the same manner, so 

 that in a day or two it shows bruises and blotches, 

 and quickly becomes rotten. The improved method is 

 to have the fruit picked into baskets with a swinging 

 handle and a hook, by which it may be hung on the ladder- 

 Apples, pears, and plums are put carefully into these, and 

 when the baskets are full they are emptied slowly and care- 

 fully into the large baskets or barrels used to convey them to 

 the stores. These baskets or barrels are conveyed in vans 

 having springs, and the fruit is picked out by women, all the 

 bruised and " specky " fruit being put on one side. When 

 dealing with ripe fruit for immediate despatch to market, 

 the pickers' baskets are emptied very carefully on the grass, 

 or on a floor, and even in a few special cases on to sheets of 

 felt. The fruit is then "graded " and put singly into the baskets , 

 barrels, boxes, or other packages ; specked, decayed, and very 

 small and mis-shapen fruit being eliminated. A few advanced 

 growers put tissue paper round choice fruit, such as superfine 

 Cox's, fine plums, and best pears ; and in some cases the baskets 

 are lined with coloured paper, which helps to display the fruit 

 to better advantage, and paper is put between the layers. 

 Another improvement adopted by the few is the use of 

 smaller sized baskets than the bushel and the half-bushel, 

 and of boxes or cases, which pack better into railway cars, 

 and thus serve to protect the fruit from getting bruised.* 



Such rational methods of treatment are, however, excep- 

 tional, and, speaking generally, there is room for much 

 improvement in the picking and subsequent handling of fruit 

 in this country. 



* See also article on " Fruit Farming" in Vol. I. No. 2 (December, 1894) of this 

 Journal. _ _ _ ^ , • , , 



