3-i2 
AMERICAN AG-RICULTUKIST. 
[Septembkb, 
rig. 1. — OKOHAED LADDEK. 
Helps in the Fruit Harvest. 
The old practice of clubbing the trees, to make 
tiiem give up— or rather down — their fruit is well 
jiigh a thing of the past. "When it is shown that 
the careful handling of fruit actually pays in dol- 
lars, people learn, though slowly, to adopt better 
methods. Picking by hand has generally taken the 
place of shaking and beating the trees. In picking. 
Ladders are needed, and for all trees of moder- 
ate size, some form of the step-ladder is preferable 
, ,^« to any other. In an 
Ijy article last month on 
the "Peach Harvest," 
we illustrated ladders 
of this kind, and gave 
an easy method of 
making a rough one. 
In former volumes, 
there have been given 
various kinds of lad- 
ders, and methods of 
rendering an ordinary 
ladder self - support- 
ing. See Jan., 1869, 
and earlier. Mr. Adam 
Bruker, Dauphin Co., 
Pa., sends a sketch 
of a home-made lad- 
der, which he finds 
useful in the orchard, 
which is given in fig- 
ure 1. A ladder simi- 
lar to this, in having 
but one upright, has long been in use in Europe, but 
his is much simpler, and may be made by almost any 
•one, A pole of the desired length is split at its 
lower end, and furnished with rungs, reaching be- 
Iween the two parts below, and passing through 
the unsplit portion above. The pole may be of any 
green wood that will split readily, but the rungs 
should be of tough, well seasoned wood, and an 
inch and a half through. We would suggest that 
an iron ring be placed upon the pole, or a bolt be 
put through, at the point where the split terminates. 
A ladder of this kind is much more easily placed in 
the branches of a tree than one of the common 
form, and being so wide at the base, will stand 
more firmly, especially on uneven gi-ound. 
An Okchard Hook will sometimes be found 
convenient. This, as shown in figure 3, is a wood- 
en rod, with an iron hook at one end. A piece of 
■wood a few inches in length, slides upon the rod, 
and has a strong peg near the end. By placing tlie 
hook over a branch, it may be drawn near to the 
picker, who catches the sliding piece under a lower 
branch, pushing the piece along the rod as nmy be 
Fig. 2. — OECHAED HOOK. 
irecessary ; the pressure coming upon the peg, the 
sliding piece is held by the side-wise strain and can 
not slip. By the use of this, the picker can often 
avoid moving his ladder in order to reach the fruit, 
and it leaves both his hands free. 
Fruit Pickers have been invented in great 
numbers, and the amount of ingenuity expended 
upon them is all out of proportion to their real 
lasefulness. Some are made to cut and others to 
pull ofE the fruit ; some catch the fruit in a little 
bag at the upper end of the afEair, and others let it 
run down through a long sleeve into the hand or 
"basket, and so on in great variety. Still, where 
fruit is upon a slender branch — and the finest speci- 
mens are often provokingly out of reach — some 
ielp of this kind comes in play, but in picking for 
market, they make too slow work. "We have seen 
a very effective picker extemporized in a few 
minutes. An old fruit-can had a long v-shaped 
notch cut in the side ; by means of a large-headed 
nail put through the bottom, the can was made fast 
to the end of a pole ; a handful of grass put into 
the can, made the picker complete. The stem of 
the fruit being caught in the notch, it readily part- 
■ed from the tree, and the grass prevented all bruis- 
ing. Mr. S. A. Duke, of Drew Co., Ark., sends a 
drawing of an implement, which he calls a " Jack- 
knife Picker," because a man or boy can readily 
make one with his pocket knife. 
This is not patented, but will no 
doubt answer quite as well as 
those that are. The engraving, 
figure 3, wUl show how it is 
constructed. A light lath, or 
other strip, txIi inch, and 
about 10 feet long, is fitted with 
a projecting piece at the end ; a 
lever, also curved at one end, 
passes through the long strip 
near the top, and is provided 
with a spring of hoop-skirt wire 
to keep it open. The lever is 
operated by a stout eord, such 
as a fishing line, which is attach- 
ed to one end, passes through 
the pole, down through another 
hole, and attached to one end of 
a lever which is at the lower 
part of the lath. By depressing 
this lower lever, the cord moves 
the upper one, and it is made to 
grasp a pear or other frait, pick 
it and hold it until it is placed 
in a basket, which for conveni- 
ence should be placed from the 
operator as far off as the length 
of the picker. We would sug- 
gest that much friction on the cord would be avoid- 
ed by running it through a couple of screw-eyes, 
screwed into the lath. 
Baskets used in picking, should be of medium 
size, as the larger the basket, the greater the risk 
of bruising its contents. Some orchardists have 
them small enough to be turned inside of a barrel, 
so that when filled, they may be emptied into the 
barrel in such a manner as to allow the fruit to roll 
out gently, rather than to fall from the top of the 
barrel. It is convenient to have the handles fur- 
nished with hooks, by which they can be hung to 
a branch ; these should have a ring at one end large 
enough to allow it to slip along on the handle, and 
so closed that it will not drop ofT the hook and be 
lost. It is sometimes convenient to hang the 
basket to a strap, which passes over one shoulder. 
Fig. 3. 
Notes from the Piaes, 
Last year was noted for its long and severe 
drouths, and this season hiis, thus far, (early Au- 
gust), been as strikingly in the other direction. Not 
only have rains been frequent and abundant, but 
we have had periods of several days at a time, 
when the air was surcharged with moisture. As 
a consequence vegetation presents a great con- 
trast to its appearance last year, and shows the 
most vigorous growth. But there are some excep- 
tions to the general condition. These moist, hot 
days, are especially favorable to the growth of those 
fungi which prey upon other plants, and as a con- 
sequence we have an unusual manifestation of 
Grape Milclciv. 
This has had so many days especially suited to its 
rapid spread and development, that I fear that all 
our sulphuring will not avail, and the splendid 
promise of a crop of grapes will show a meagre 
fulfillment, for wiih this dampness comes not only 
mildew, but rot The first year that our clump of 
Thready Yiiccn, Bear's Grass, Adam's Needle, 
or by whatever name you choose to call Yucca flla- 
mentosa, bore fruit, the seeds were saved and a lot 
of them were so^vn. In a couple of years we found 
thatwehadon hand enough yuccasfora plantation, 
and after edging a cross path in the garden, the rest 
went to the heap. Here and there a plant showed 
flowers last year, but the present season, the fourth 
from the seed, there was a general inflorescence. A 
row of 200 feet in length, closely set with this 
yucca in full blow, is a sight worth going far to see. 
It is interesting to note what a variety of plants 
were produced from the same lot of seed. Some 
plants are nearly twice as large as others, while 
there is a marked difference in the width and stiff- 
ness of the leaves, amount of threadiuess of the 
margins, and in the shade of the green. Indeed, in 
looking at the extremes here presented, one can 
hardly wonder that several species have been made 
from the varieties. The differences in the flowers 
are not so striking as those in the foliage ; in some 
plants the flower stalk is reddish throughout ; the 
panicle or cluster is more or less branching in dif- 
ferent individuals, and there is considerable varia- 
tion in the size as well as the shape of the flowers, 
some being nearly globular ; so far as color goes, 
there is considerable difference in the purity of the 
whiteness, a few being of a clear " paper white," 
while the majority are more or less tinged with 
green, and now and then one with just the tips of 
the divisions of the flower slightly touched with 
duU purple. If one could only induce a plant to 
put some red into its flowers as well as in its stalks, 
it would be a great gain. We have had 
Tile \arroiT-L.ea"ved Yucca, 
Yii^ca angiixtifoKa, in flower for the first time, 
though the plants must be six or eight years old. 
This species, which comes from west of the "Father 
of Waters," has leaves only half an inch wide, or 
less, very stiff and sharp, of a dull, pale green, and 
its fiower cluster being seldom branched, makes 
much less show than the other. This is also a va- 
riable species, some forms having very large flow- 
ers, but those on our two plants were not noticeably 
unlike those of the common species. The seed 
vessel is about twice as large as that on the Thready 
Tucca In Sept., 1875, you figured 
Tlic liamaiias R-ose of Japan, 
from specimens sent from here. I hold to the good 
opinion of the plant there expressed ; its very 
dark green and robust foliage, appears to be 
shunned by the ordinary rose insects ; its flowers, 
which appear earlier than those of any other rose, 
make up by their abundance and prolonged bloom 
— it having now, the first week in August, several 
flowers — and especially by their fragrance, the lack 
of that doubleness that most persons consider so 
essential in a rose. I know that I am laughed at 
for admiring a single rose, but 1 have an advantage 
over those persons, as I can enjoy the double ones 
as well as they, and have besides the pleasure of 
the others, in which they can see no beauty. But, 
after all, the great value of this rose as an orna- 
mental plant, is in its fruit, and this is why I refer 
to it now. "When I sent the specimens for an en- 
graving, the fruit had not formed, and I sent the 
artist a French plate as a guide for the fruit, which 
was there represented as globular, and it is so given 
in the engraving 
and description in 
1S75. It appears 
that there is a con- 
siderable variety in 
the shape of the 
fruit ; it is some- 
times globose, but 
in botli my white 
and red - flowered 
plants the fruit is 
remarkably flatten- 
ed ; the larger 
specimens are an 
inch and a half 
broad, and only 
halt as long, (or 
short), and are 
crowned by the di- 
visions of the 
calyx, which are 
an inch and a half in length ; the engraving, giv- 
ing a section of the fruit, shows these. In Siebold's 
engraving, the young fruit is shown as very prickly, 
but this also varies, and in mine the surface is 
bright, entirely smooth, and shiny, and at first 
orange-color, which turns to scarlet. This rose Is 
found wild in parts of Japan, and is generally cul- 
tivated there and in Northern China. "Ramanas," 
given by Thunberg as its Japanese name, is, ac- 
cording to Siebold, incorrect ; he says it should be 
Bama nasf, which means " beach pear," but as 
