The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1897-10-05
No. 50

fruit lying on the grass under the trees
was carefully gathered up and piled
before we began hand picking.
gave the gathering up my personal
supervision, to see to it that the fruit
was carefully laid in baskets, and that
these were carefully emptied on the
piles. At convenient intervals these
piles were sorted over, the small and
bruised fruit being carried to the cider
mill and the apparently sound put in
barrels. These barrels were protected
from rain and carried from time to
time to the shed, where the fruit was
again carefully examined under my
supervision, and only such as appeared
to be perfectly sound were put in bar
rels, headed and transferred to the
dark, cool cellar. Tne remainder of
the crop was hand picked as carefully
as could get it done by my regular
farm hands, all under careful super.
vision.
AS these men we're not hired to pick
BY the barrel, they had no motive to
slight their work. These. apples also
were headed up in barrels and put in
the cellar, eide by side with the first
lot. Two months later took from the
two lots about forty barrels to market,
and, unloading, picked them over. and
made the following memoranda of the
results, which I copy from note book:
find that windfall apples, taken from
the grass ground, and apparently all
sound, at the time Of packing, have
rotted nearly a third within two
months from the time they were bar
relied, while those carefully hand picked
from the trees have rotted about one
fourth, On February 10th, another
lot OF these sorted windfaIls averaged
about half sound to the barrel, while
the hand picked of the same variety
(R9d Russets) gave about a couple of
quarts of unsound ones to the barrel
The dollar and. cent inference from
this investigation is that the best sorted
Of windfalls are pretty ticklish sort
of an investment, and that in seasons
when apples are cheap and labor high
as Of average years, it is decidedly
cheaper to sead all this quality of fruit
directly to the cider mill rather than
be at the care of gathering it together,
and making two careful sortings Of it,
to have third rot on your hands be-
fore marketing; for the rotting is not
only so much direct loss, but also the
loss Of much time in overhauling and
wiping the sound fruit that remains, SO
as to make it decsntly presentable.
Now, a remark or two on the prac-
tice quite general Of hand picking the
fruit and then dropping it into instead
of carefully laying it in the basket. /
had recently occasion to examine two
large lots OF apples which had been
gathered by the two different methods.
Each lot was kept the same way, in
large bins and in cellars. In one, the
carefully handed, I could hardly find
at this date (Fabruary 22J, a rotten
apple; indeed, on looking carefully
over a surface that would make several
barrels, / saw but a single decayed
fruit, while on the lot picked by drop
ping process, from one fifth to one
quarter Of the fruit was unsound. In
the first instance, the owner had gath
cred his apples with his own hands,
and in the other three there had been
boys employed.
Consider now the loss which is the
result OF careless handling of the fruit
One man boasted to me that he had
picked twenty barrels day; felt that
1 could not efford to employ him; an
other could pick with care from eight
to ten barrels per day. Apples picked
by the first man would have cost me
directly about ten cents barrel; those
by the second about seventeen cents,
a difference of seven cents Ga barrel
for picking.
Now let US consider the indirect, and
yet just as real cost. At this season
OF the year Baldwins are usually worth
from 81 upward per barrel. Assuming
that the carelessly picked fruit loses
one fifth by rotting, and the carefully
gathered one fortieth, then the loss on
the fruit OF the first is thirty five cents
per barrel more than on that picked by
the careful man; and adding this indi-
rect to the direct cost of his work, his
fruit picking has really cost me forty
five cents barrel, while the work of
the careful man has cost but seventeen
cents
The remark of the wise man made
| last fall that the UrOfita Of the annie
crop in the season of precedented
plenty would ultimately be found in
the pockets of the careful picker, is