Durango semi-weekly herald. (Durango, Colo.) 1899-1907, 1903-10-22
PICKING AND STORING APPLES.
Must Be Taken From the Tree at Elk
actly the RiQht Time,

aCuy t0c HiAnt Time.
Al this season OF the year. when the
apple crop is about ready TO harvest,
there Is need TO call attention of grow
ers To the Importance of getting the
fruit into cold storage AS soon as pos.
sible after II is removed from the
trees. IL used to be the practice
and II is followed even yet by some
growers-to pile the fruit on the
ground under the trees and allow 1t to
sweat" Often the fruit was barrel
ed and the barrels left in the orchard
10 allow this same process to take
place. 1t was thought the fruit would
keep better after this sweating" pro-
cess.
As cold storage Of apples came into
general use. however, the question OF
how TO handle the fruit TO best advan-
tage was more carefully studied. Cold
storage OF fruit does not make good
apple out Of bad one. II will not
make sound an apple which has be-
gun to decay. The cold temperature
simply arrests the process OF decay.
and naturally apples which are over
ripe when placed in storage will not
keep 50 well as those which are plac--
ed there at the proper time.
1t follows. therefore. that apples, to
keep well. should be left on the trees
until just the proper stnge Of ripe
ness has been reached and then hur-
ried to storage, to prevent further pro-
gress. Ripening OF fruit, as is wall
known, Is simply process OF decay,
and storage Is to arrest this decay.
II apples have to be shipped To
storage houses 1t will be well to use
refrigerator cars. 1t has been found
by experience that the fruit can ripen
very rapidly when shipped In ordinary
freight cars. and it frequently happens
that when the fruit is received at the
storage house 1t Is SO ripe that even
the low temperature Will fail to pre-
serve II.
Another thing which needs to be I'm
pressed upon most growers Is that APP
pies must be watched carefully, so
that they can be picked Just the mo-
ment they reach the proper stage.
IsNot all varieties can be picked at the
same time, and 1t frequently happens
that not all the fruit of oven the same
variety ripens at the same time. In
deed. there are careful growers who
remove part Of the fruit from their
trees when Just ripe. leaving tho un-
colored and immature fruit to rlpen
Inter. Relieved OF part OF Its burden,
the trees will furnish great deal OF
plant food to the remaining apples.
and they Will attain good size and
take on a high color.
| There can be no question that much
money is lost every year by allowing
fruit to become over-ripe on the trees.
A grower will have an orchard Of, say,
half Jonathans and half Ben Davis
trees. The Jonathans viii be ready u
pick. but the owner viii notice that.
It Will be several weeks before the
Ben Davis are ready.
We'll. I will wait week before
picnmg the Jonathans," he reasons.
"and then by the time have finished
them the other varieties win be ready
and the same picking gang will do ali
the work"
But 1t happens that by the time the
Jonathans are picked they will have
hung on the trees too long. the fruit
VIII be mcllowing and the ai,plAa Will
go Into storage In too ripe condition.
As result there will he . great loss
when barrels are opened, and ~
fault Will bs charged to storses, Al
pies must be picked when jnst ripo.
and then each days picking ahnaI<l
49, d.