The Parma herald. (Parma, Idaho) 1903-1917, 1912-09-19
ACTIVITY AT
STEEL FARM
Denver Man is in Charge
of Picking and Packing
Big Fruit Crop

The most interesting. and by far the
busiest place in all the Roswell bench
just now and for the next two weeks
Is the prune packing establishment on
the famous Steel fruit ranch, one-half
mile east and one-quarter mile north |
OF Roswell. or three-and-one-eighth
miles south and west Of Parma
John Steel Of Denver. owner Of the
ranch, is here in person to supervise
and assist his capable and genial gen
eral manager. Charles Paine They are
both very busy men as they keep a
watchful eye on everything that makes
for success in the packing of their
large prune crop.
They expect to gather about 100000
pounds of prunes, equaling about rs
carloads, from their own 4-acre prune
orchard In addition. Mr.. Steel has
bought all the prunes in the surround
ing country. including four OF FIVE car
loads from Edgar DiIley, FIVE car
loads from Mr.. Clare and smaller
crops from others. making about l50.-
600 pounds he has purchased and is
packing with his own OF these about
20 cars will be sold fresh in the crates.
About $4,000 pounds will be evap-
GRATED, which will furnish 10000
pounds OF. evaporated prunes for the
winter market The market price be-
ing very low at present no sales have
been made as yet but the expectation
is that the price will advance soon.
For that reason a large part of the
crop is being held short time and
later much of il will be dried or evap-
GRATED in the large prune dryer. the
capacity of which will be largely in
creased by Mr.. Steel to take care Of
the immense drying business he will
have this fall.
Charles Paine has the direct manag-
ment of the packing. He is an expert
at it, man Of excellent business abil-
ity and pleasant disposition and is
we'll liked by every on who works
for him Under him are two foremen,
one for each packing house, Harry
and Hal Farley. In the packing house
are 81 girls and women from Roswell
and the surrounding community, who
= do the work of packing the baskets
! that go to fill the crates These pack
/ ers are arranged bes de long table
which is built around the wall towarC
the outside of the houses with wind
ows about it for ventilation The wo
men work rapidly. sorting and packing
at the same time. There are fou
baskets to the crate. They receive
cents per crate, making from Sl25 L
$3.50 per day. according to the rapid
ity OF their work In addition to tn
women and girls there are two me-
making boxes out OF the material pur
chased sometime ago. There are ais
: two men mailing on covers as fast a
the boxes are filed. Two men wit
e teams are kept busy hauling the prune
T from the pickers to the packing hous
k and also filled crates to the depot
In the orchard under the formar
n ship OF Mr.. Paine's right hand maj
g George Wohlschlagel. are IA me
Ie gathering the ripe fruit from the tree
and filling boxes to be hauled to th
,e packers as fast as they are ready. tn
d boxes are provided for the men an
ii are hauled away as fast as filled Tf
highest wages paid up to Tuesisy la
week was $50 to one man who ha
picked 81 boxes on Monday Mr.. Dills
= and Mr.. Clare also employ about
men, making Is piokers in all en-
ployed in the prune orchards.
1t, Pickers have been rather scarce, :
y that the packers have not been bu.
u all the time Altogether. Mr.. Steel h;
T." IS men on his payroll. which meal
large expense. but also large sum
We money being paid to home labor.
OF To accommodate all these worker
ID Mr.. Steel erected a conveniently a
~, ranged kitchen. supplied it with fl
sets of dishes. and set up 4 large te
n for a boarding place for those wi
ho came from a distance. In addition.
rs purchased six large sleeping tents I
of those who needed them Most of I
re- workers this year, however, are frc
Roswell or have brought their ter
sk. with them and there is little city
mt about 20 tents on the lots adjoini
ks the packing houses. where the work'
ow who came from a distance are lvir
TO. In the boarding quarters there are ;
commodations for As people.
ed A carload of prunes means IL
,ad crates or 1000 baskets. Twenty c:
rdi shipped will mean $1,000 baske
ms which will probably reach 10000 ia
,at lilies as the consumers
,od The apple packing season will I
md low the prune season and 1t a
promises to be full OF interest
Steel has just lately purchased lai
apple sorter which will separate