1865.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
305 
Fruit Picking, and Fruit Pickers. 
The choicest spccimeus of pears and apples 
often grow on the ends of long, slender branch¬ 
es, which will not support a ladder, nor a man 
While plucking the fruit. When long ladders 
are leaned against the outsides of trees, many of 
the small limbs and fruit-buds are broken off. 
Sometimes pear trees grow so tali that the 
limbs are not strong enough to 
bear a small boy in the tree, nor 
on a ladder resting against it, 
unless it is supported with guy 
ropes. An orchard ladder should 
have its lower ends shod with 
iron, in the form of a wedge, to 
enter the gro^md readily, and to 
hold the lower end when putting 
it up and down. (See fig. 2.) Set 
the ladder nearly perpendicular, 
and stay it with two guy ropes 
from the top of the ladder fast- 
j’ij,-. a. — FOOT ened to trees, or stakes, or fences, 
OF LADDEK. giiowu ill fig. 1. The ropes 
need not be larger than a common clotlies line. 
A man can ascend to the very top of a long lad¬ 
der secured in this Avay, and pluck half a bushel 
or more of fruit with entire safety. A large bag 
suspended on one shoulder, and under the arm 
on the opposite side, is much more convenient 
than a basket, as there is no danger of letting 
the fruit drop, as with a basket; and both hands 
are always free, whether the picker be in the 
tree or on a ladder. If fruit be borne upon long, 
slender branches, by drawing the ends inward 
or downward, as repre¬ 
sented in the illustration, 
all may be reached for 
several feet on each side 
of the ladder. A frait- 
picker having a handle 
4 or 5 feet long, will some¬ 
times be found conven¬ 
ient for taking that which 
can not be reached other¬ 
wise. The number of 
styles of fruit pickers is 
great, and much inge¬ 
nuity has been expended 
on more or less compli¬ 
cated contrivances. With 
this as with most other 
implements, the simplest 
is the best. We give a 
figure of one (fig. 3) which 
can be easily made, and 
which will accomplish the 
purpose as well as those 
which have a great deal 
of machinery about them. 
A stiff wire is bent in the 
form here shown, to which 
a bag is attached, and the 
whole is fastened to a 
handle, which may have 
a hook near the picker or 
on the other end. In 
bending the wire, the lip 
or projection to the ring 
should be made so nar¬ 
row that a small apple 
can not slip through. A similar lip is form¬ 
ed by the manner in which the ends of the wire 
are fastened, one on each side of the handle. 
With this picker, the ring is put over the apple, 
and by drawing or pushing the stem passes into 
one of the lips and the fruit falls into the bag. 
■»!» i » I mn ^Bii I ■ 
The Bowline Knot, Farmers Knot, etc, 
One of the first things a boy learns when he 
goes to sea, is to tie a bowline (pronounced 
“ bolin,”) for it is the knot in most constant use, 
and to tie it quickly is very important. This 
knot will bear all the strain which can be put 
upon-the rope, and never “jam”—that is, be¬ 
come so tight that it cannot be easily loosened— 
in fact just as easily and quickly as it can be 
tied. A loop in a rope is called a “ bight,” and 
the part which is fast, or not used in lying the 
knot, is the “ standing part.” To make a bow- I 
line knot, take the end of tlie rope in the right 
hand and lay it upon the standing part {A), 
which is held in the left, as shown in fig. 1; 
4.— DOUBLE BOWLINE KNOT, 
then turn the end under A, and up through the 
bight (15), which, the end-part remaining straight, 
will cause the standing part to make a bight ((7) 
around it, as in fig. 2. Then pass the end under 
the standing part, and, following its own part, 
back through the bight G\ leave it loose, as in 
fig. 3. This knot is of use often where a rope 
is to be made fast to a post, or to another rope, 
or where two ropes are to be tied together 
temporarily, especially if they are of different 
sizes, a bowline knot being tied in each rope, 
(the bights {B) passing each through the other), 
A Bunning Bowline is one which is tied around 
the standing part of the rope, and so a slip-noose 
is formed. A bowline may also be tied with the 
bight of a rope, (fig. 4); that is, in the slack of a 
rope not using either end. The bight is taken 
in the hand, like the end, as above described; 
it is laid over the standing parts (doubled), the 
bights B and G are formed in the same way as 
with the single rope, the end being passed up 
through G. Now this end, which is a bight or 
loop, is opened and passed around the knot, so 
as to lie (single) under the standing parts, just 
like the end bight D, which is shown in fig. 3. 
The Farmer’s Knot (fig. 5).—This is a capi¬ 
tal knot for tying twm ropes together when one 
can use only very short 
ends, or for fastening two 
straps together, or a strap 
to a rope, or either to a 
chain. Two bights or 
loops are made, one (a) is 
passed through the other 
(5); then the end of the 
outer bight is put through 
the inner one, and all 
drawn tight. The end of 
the inner bight should 
come against the stand¬ 
ing part of the outer bight 
and be jammed by it; 
thus the knot will never 
slip and will not jam very 
hard. Solon Kobinson 
calls this the “farmer’s 
knot,” and as we do not 
find it described in among 
the seamen’s knots in Mr. Fig. 6. 
Blunt’s '■'■Sheet Anchorf 
the farmers may as well lay claim to the name. 
A Half-Mitch, seized to make an Eye. When 
an eye [see page 276 (September), fig. 2] is 
wanted temporarily in the end of a rope, pass 
the end once arotmd the standing part, and 
- HALF HITCU 
SEIZED FOR EYE. 
