The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-07-01
HARVESTING AND CURING april
COTS

The harvest of this important fruit
begins next month. Although the crop
is much smaller than last year, prices
will doubtless he larger, and it will pay
to take all possible pains to have this
possible condition.
Get the drying trays all repaired and
nicely brushed. If you are a begin
rer and must have new trays, get six
foot half-inch lath for the sides of the
trays, inch by inch and one-half pine
for the ends. and sawed shakes for
the bottoms. Make your trays two by
three feet outside measurement. 1t
VIII take just four shakes to make a
bottom. Wet the ends of the lath so
they will not split, and nail to the
end pieces with two six-penny wire
nails at each corner. When the tray
Is completed, nail lath of common
thickness across the middle of the bot
tom, the narrow way, with two four
penny nails driven through each end
of the lath into the sides. Then turn
ehe tray right-side-up and drive a
snort, large-headed nail q don't know
their name through each end of the
shakes into this cross-piece, having a
hat iron under the lath to clinch the
nails. This makes the cheapest tray
IN the long run and one that will last
from two to twenty years with proper
care with scarcely any needed re-
pairing.
Coal oil cases, with one side knocked
of, and the open end closed up, make
very good picking and sweat boxes if
one cannot afford more expensive ones.
The apricot should remain on the tree
TIL 1t is fully ripe and ready to fall off
with slight jar of the limb The
ground under the trees should be very
mellow by frequent cultivation and
well "smooched' before the picking be-
gins. Get a long pole and fasten a
well-padded piece of scantling on one
end, making a IT. With this pole
slightly jar each limb that has ripe
fruit on it, at the point where the ripe
fruit is. With a little practice you will
be able to get off the ripe fruit with
as little of the unripe as you will by
manipulating. But you cannot shake
the tree without getting off a great
deal OF unripe fruit. In the way l have
described you can gather several times
as much fruit in a day as by hand
picking, and the fruit will be of a
more uniform ripeness. Do not begin
shaking the trees in the morning till
all moisture from either fog or dew
has dried off The ripe fruit is now
and carefully poured into 80 or 60
pound boxes, which are hauled on a
sled to the cutting, which should be
near the drying ground. The cutters
deity halve the fruit, extract the pit
and place the halves, cut side up. on
the trays. A good cutter will pit and
tray from 400 to 500 pounds a day. Wo-
men make the best cutters The filled
trays are now stacked in a small
tightly built house or box, with a re-
ceptacle underneath in which to burn
sulphur. The amount of sulphur to
burn can best be determined by. ex-
pertinent. The fruit should be sui
phured till the cup of the fruit halves
are partially or wholly filled with
LIQUID. If there is no perceptible LIQUID
in the cup, it should be sulphured
longer, or more sulphur used, if you
want the best selling product the
market demands. il will take twice
as that costing cents per pound.
There is no economy in buying cheap
sulphur From the sulphuring house
the trays of fruit are carried to the
drying ground. 1t usually takes from
four to six days to dry the fruit. The
proper stage of dryness can best be de-
termined by little practice. In gen
eral the fruit may be put into the
sweat boxes or sacks when il shows no
sickness when pressed between the
thumb and finger. The fruit should be
taken from the trays between 10 and
4 o'clock, while the sun is bright and
hot, and ever after protected from the
little moth that lays the egg that
matches the worm that causes swear
thoughts.-D. Edison Smith, in Rural