1004 . 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
731 
PICKING AND HANDLING FRUIT. 
CUSTOM ANI> USAGE IN VARIOUS LOCALITIES. 
How They Work in Michigan. 
The growing of fruit, and especially apples and pears 
in this country is beginning to assume immense pro¬ 
portions, and as the harvest comes at a time when help 
is scarce it seems necessary to make every move count 
and to do as little superfluous labor as possible. In a 
large commercial orchard we have never found it profit¬ 
able to make more than one picking on a tree, but some 
trees ripen sooner than others of the same variety. We 
practice going through the orchard and picking the 
riper trees first and like to leave the fruit on the tree 
until fairly colored, the seeds matured, or until the sound 
apples begin to drop. The old method of picking and 
throwing in large piles to remain perhaps a month or 
until the professional packer came seems impractical 
and very wasteful. If the orchard is of much size, not 
less than 300 potato crates should be provided, a low 
spring wagon with large platform, plenty of good ladders 
and sacks to pick in. and a rack covered with canvas or 
good burlap (sec Fig. 323) to assort from. We would 
pack as soon as possible after picking, and if to keep get 
in good storage at once. Baskets to pick in have been 
discarded. We now use a common two-bushel grain 
bag, not with the corners tied together, but a good sub¬ 
stantial pad made by folding several thicknesses of bag¬ 
ging four or five inches wide and about a foot long. 
This is firmly sewed to the upper and lower corners of 
the bag, making it much more comfortable and much 
handier than when the corners are.tied together. In 
stead of a stick sharpened at the ends to keep the bag 
open a stiff wire about a foot 
long, with a small loop bent in 
each end and the wire bent in 
a half circle, is carefully sewed 
in the lower part of the open¬ 
ing to hold the bag open. This 
sack is thrown over the head 
and one arm and carried on one 
shoulder. This kind of sack 
will easily hold one-half bushel, 
and if a good man is pretty 
well up on a long ladder he will 
often put in nearly a bushel 
without injuring the fruit in 
the least. These are emptied 
by placing in the crate and 
carefully drawing out the sack, 
not allowing the fruit to drop. 
The crates arc never filled 
quite full and can be stacked 
in the packing house without 
injuring the fruit, 'l'lie kind 
of trees, whether high or low, 
will determine the kind of lad¬ 
der to use, but for ordinary 
orchards goods ten-foot step 1 - 
ladders made so they can be 
adjusted to uneven ground, will 
reacli the lower part of the tree 
and the entire tree if pruned 
as it should be, but a light 
long pointed ladder will often 
be needed to finish the top. We like to keep the crates 
pretty well filled and in the packing house so if the 
weather is bad for picking the packing can go on. In 
stead of packing from crates they should be carefully 
emptied on to the packing racks. Boxes and patent 
crates may come into common use for storing apples, 
but at present the market seems to demand a barrel care¬ 
fully and honestly packed. L. j. post. 
Kent Co., Mich. 
What a Jerseyman Says. 
For apples you need a man that is active and not 
afraid to go on a ladder sometimes pretty well up. He 
should have a sack that will hold a bushel; it should 
have strap and buckle, so as to make it fit the picker, 
and the mouth of the bag should be kept open; this 
opening should be made to fit the picker’s arm. so that 
be can put the apples in without looking. All pickers 
should train themselves to carry bag on one shoulder 
instead of around the neck. Next is a ladder to fit the 
trees. A ladder that is a little taller than the tree is 
preferable. This ladder must be as light as safety will 
allow at the top with weight enough at the bottom, so 
it will not be top-heavy, and light rods with burr to 
tighten placed under bottom and top rounds of the lad¬ 
der. If the ladder is more than 10 feet long one or 
more rods should be used on the center of ladder. 
Without these rods the ladder is always working apart. 
If nailed new rounds are hard to put in and new rounds 
are often wanted. If you have an even run of apples 
and are shipping, clean picking is the cheapest, and if 
you are careful about leaves the apples can be put right 
in the barrels from the picking bag; that is. if you carry 
the picking bag on the one shoulder. When we grade 
we put them in convenient sized heaps; ought to always 
be in the shade, as apples sometimes scald in less than 
an hour’s time when exposed to the sun. With an un¬ 
even run «f apples on the tree it sometimes pays to pick 
only the best. If the picker has judgment no grading 
is necessary. But ordinarily the pickers are not careful 
enough for this. We try to avoid planting apples that 
ripen unevenly. Even cider apples will pay when 
heavily loaded to pick the merchantable fruit and let 
the small stay on to color and grow. The careful 
grower who gives every care to the orchard and mar¬ 
kets in the best shape, picks only as the fruit reaches 
the highest stage of development and uses cold storage 
for the fruit is the one who gets every dollar out of the 
orchard. To this all growers will come as the market 
gets supplied with fine goods. When gathering for stor¬ 
age they can be barreled in the orchard, and taken right 
to the plant, the sooner the better. To put away with¬ 
out cold storage they will keep best in a house built 
with double walls so as to make it warm enough not 
to freeze. The apples ought to be assorted before put¬ 
ting in barrels, as it is seldom that there are not more or 
less specked apples at picking time. Barrels ought 
to be filled so they will not move when handling. If 
you do not have barrels then bushel baskets are the 
lightest and easiest handled package; bushel boxes may 
be cheaper. It is always best to put away as fast 
as gathered, leaving house open at night and closed 
during the day. A good picker will get off about 60 
bushels apples per day, and if apples are large and trees 
low-headed 100 bushels have been picked; variety of 
apple, Fallawater. 
The pear is handled the same as the apple except we 
usually pick in pails or buckets on account of showing 
bruises more. It costs 25 per cent more to pick in bas¬ 
kets than in sacks. When Bartlett or other varieties are 
overloaded it will pay to pick twice. With ordinary 
crop pick all at once, as the extra cost will only pay as 
with the apple, where everything is done for highest 
grade. A man must have judgment to know where 
to Set his ladder. The right man never falls. The 
wrong fellow gets a fall almost every day, breaks his lad¬ 
der and usually thinks he needs two or more ladders 
to a tree. This man will pick if trees are full .30 bushels 
apples, or less of pears. With judgment the tree can be 
picked from top to bottom with the same ladder. We 
never hire a man who wants too many ladders, or has 
to decide where to begin to pick the tree and which 
particular fruit to pick first. The picker that knows 
how gets very near all the fruit from the ladder. 
Mercer Co., N. J. i. j. blackwell. 
The Western New York Way. 
In our commercial apple orchards in western New 
York, in the absence of sufficient local help, we are 
obliged to employ men and boys from the cities to pick 
the fruit, though we endeavor to secure local men for 
the grading and other work because, as a rule, they are 
more reliable and efficient. A gang consisting of eight 
to in pickers, two to three sorters, one to select and lay 
the face, one to head the barrels, and one teamster if 
the orchard is not more than two or three miles from 
the car or warehouse, should pick and deliver 125 to 
150 barrels per day. Each picker is furnished with a 
strong half-bushel basket with a hook to hang it upon 
the rung3 of- the ladder, or branches of die tree, and a 
light but strong ladder, sufficiently long to reach the 
highest branches. Each picker is assigned to a sepa¬ 
rate tree, and is instructed to handle the ladder care¬ 
fully, so as not to knock off fruit needlessly and also 
to handle the fruit carefully, so as to avoid needless 
bruising. In picking Winter varieties all fruit should 
be gathered and none left scattered over the tree. The 
foreman or superintendent will need to keep close watch 
that these instructions are properly observed. 
I he sorting table should be conveniently located so 
that pickers will not have to walk far to empty baskets. 
It is usually desirable to have two tables so that one 
will always be convenient to those pickers who first 
finish their trees and move on somewhat in advance of 
others. These tables are usually made about eight or 
to feet in length, with slat bottoms, and with one end 
somewhat higher than the other. Many growers “run" 
fruit directly from these tables into barrels, but person 
ally 1 place a blanket over these slats except at the 
lower end, where they are left uncovered in order that 
leaves and litter may drop through. The blanket is 
used to prevent bruising in pouring the fruit upon the 
table. The fruit is picked up by hand, carefully sorted 
and placed in baskets, from which it is carefully poured 
into barrels. The “facer’’ selects well colored specimens 
of medium size for the grade or variety, as nearly uni¬ 
form as practicable, and lays them closely on the bot¬ 
tom of the barrel with the stem to the head. The barrel 
is then filled without variation as to grading, and is 
shaken after each basket is added. When filled it is 
placed or. a plank, a circular board the size of a head is 
placed upon the fruit and pressed firmly by the forearms 
while the barrel is well shaken. Any deficiency in the 
filling then becomes apparent; this is remedied, the bar¬ 
rel is then headed, turned over and stamped with the 
variety and grade name, and is then ready for delivery 
to the market. It is customary 
to deliver the fruit as fast as 
barreled, so that little or no 
barreled fruit is left in the or 
chard over night, w. t. mann. 
Niagara Co.. N. Y. 
NOVA SCOTIA APPLES 
FOR EXPORT. 
The method in general use 
here is to have a good packing 
table, say 12 feet long by three 
feet wide, built of light mate¬ 
rial, as it has to be moved 
about the orchard as picking 
proceeds. It should be on 
wheels. First cover this with 
a little straw, then a quilt mad: 
from any cheap material, and 
you have a soft tabffi for the 
pickers to deposit the apples 
on; should also have a water¬ 
proof cover to use in case of 
rain or heavy dews at nights; 
this will protect baskets and all 
that is required in the work 
from rain. Next is needed a 
good plank to set the barrels 
on that the apples may be well 
settled down as the packing of 
the barrels proceed. The pack¬ 
er requires baskets with hinged handles to empty his 
apples without bruising. A paper cover is first used, 
then two courses faced in the barrel. After that the 
barrel is slightly shaken after each basket is emptied. 
When full if for immediate shipment a false head is 
used, made from a two-inch plank and well covered with 
felting. Put on the screw presser and settle them down 
so that the proper head will go in without much press¬ 
ing, and your apples will be tight without bruising; if 
not for immediate shipment it is better not to press them 
at all, as they will have to have a few more put in to 
make up for shrinkage. It is impossible to ship apples 
in proper order at any time without seeing that they are 
tight. The pickers use the ordinary ladder of suitable 
length, narrowed at the top as shown on page 732. With 
the usual half-bushel baskets and a good hook to hang 
his baskets to limb or ladder he is ready for work, first 
cleaning the ground of windfalls. Then it is usual to 
pick all at once. It is usual late in the season if help 
is scarce to barrel them right from the tree without 
packing. Store them and pack all through the Winter 
just as wanted to ship. In this way you are sure that 
your apples will turn out right. I do not know that 
there is anything more that I can add in reference to 
your question. c. m. l. 
Falmouth. N. S._ 
UUUAI, MAIL ROUTES. A rural carrier in a neighboring 
county, where the system has hut recently been established, 
was considerably astonished recently to receive the follow¬ 
ing letter from one of his appreciative patrons: “Friend 
Fred: As you run the free delivery route by my house I 
would like you to bring me on your next trip a barrel of salt, 
two sacks of flour, also a on of coai, three spools of wire, 
then throw a set of whiffle.trees and an evener under the seal. 
When you come by Marlon Waller's get two of his largest 
chicken coops and bring them along, then I will have rnv 
turkeys caught so you can take them to town, It wouldn't 
take you but a minute. And 1 have two loads of wood to get 
to town. Had 1 better get it out along the road, or will you 
go into the \\*onds after il? I think tills free delivery Is a 
great thing for us rural people." Brant (Mich.) Independent. 
H. M. STRINGFEELOW AND ONE QF HIS TREES. Fig. 325. 
