The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-08-31
PICKING AND PACKING ApprD.
Not a Little is Lost in ImproperIy Pr
pairing the Apple Crop for the M.
%fBy r. r uShi0oN

the inside-that is, free from strins
around the inside or bottom. Thay.
should be lined with burlap to pre-
vent brusing, and a short iron hook
should be attached to the handle +,
suspend the basket from the limbs :,
as to enable the picker TO use both
hands.
The great advantage in using the
basket I. find lies largely in the fact
that if the apples are carefully placed
in the same they are not bruised.
The worst objections I have to the
baskets. are that they are not so handy
as the sack and that sometimes care
less pickers are disposed to toss an
pies inlo them as they set upon tho
ground or hang upon a limb a few
feet away.
My experince is that apples packed
from the table and Immediately placed
in cold storage Gf they are to be put
better results.
This eth adds two to four
months to the keeping qualities of the
fruit.
You cannot afford to let your fruit
lie under the trees or in a building for
two or three weeks before you barrel.
Every days delay in packing and
shipping will cost you money and quail
ity in your fruit, and if you are not the
loser. the party h buys it is.
Fruit grown in a warm latitude or
harvested during the warm September
or October must be quickly handled
But when properly handled at picking
time, as l have suggested, there will
not be much room for complaint.
A good barrel is essential if YOU
wish to store your fruit, ave it keep
we'll and sell we'll. We suffer from
lack Of good cooperage.
A tight barrel is the best, and the
better it is made, the better results
you will have. There will be less loss
from ~shrinkage Of fruit, from rats and
mice and other causes.
In my orchard [ nave eight piCkers
and six sorters and barrelers in each
gang. A good strong table, construct
ed Of light, strong material, is provid-
ed.
This table is set in the center of six
teen trees; sometimes, if the fruit is
scarce, and the trees are very small
the table is set in the center Of twenty
four trees or thirty-SiX trees.
Four or six rows are carried for
ward at once and the table is moved
along the center rows and set in the
middle Of the square at each move.
I usually have one man that nails
the hoops, the head liners, and takes
out the heads Of barrels, as it pre-
vents loss in shipping and facilitates in
the examination and inspection or
fruit in storage.
If you have good fruit and it is
worth money in the market to warrant
you so doing, you should make two
grades; one a strictly No. 1, or fancy
grade, and another which will take
fruit tina is slightly defective but
for immediate use, commonly
termed No. 2 in the market.
Usually it will pay as well or better
to sell this No. 2 fruit to the evapora-
49,, 80 @Io aiIor ~oi1I ;nCtno1 of nntt1nr
it in expensive barrels, and TO this add
hte cost Of freight or commissioners.
no more, and perhaps not as
much as you would have realized III
bulk.
Another advantage in selling to the
cider mill or evaporatOr IS that you
take it out of the market of green
fruit. where it does lot come into
competition with your good green
Face the barrels with good, we'll
colored apples of even size, put in u
basketball of another layer of similar
on top of the ~facers, then fill your
barrel with apples free from
Or worm holes of a size not smaller
two and one-haif inches in diam
ater for Ben Davis and Jonathan or
and o~ne-Quarter for Winesap.
Settle the fruit in the barrel as each
basketful is emptied in by shaking the
barrel.
This is very.important, as your fruit
will be tight in the barrel and require
less pressing of the head and cOnse-
q~uently less bruising Of the fruit;
When No. 2 fruit is packed 1t should
faced with No. 2 fruit.
After the barrel is full and the frult
well shaken down, adjust the apples
top so that they are as nearly level
as possible.
This will insure equal pressure
the barrel, will prevent
your fruit being bruised ~unequally ana
will present a much better appearance
on being opened. and the fruit will
nave less slack as a result of a few
months in cold storage.
Stencil or stamp name of the apple
the face end Of the barrel. No. L
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