Shoshone journal. [volume] (Shoshone, Idaho) 1884-1931, 1917-08-24
HARVESTING GREAT
1877 APPLE CROP
Volunteer Crews Are Now BEING
Organized Everywhere
Over Country.
HOW BEST TO DO THE WORK
Main Point Is TO Put Fruit Quickly
Into Temporary Storsge-Local
Clubs Aid Federal Food
Administration.

This years apple crop will be han
vested in most sections With vOluntee
pickers. men and women, boys an
girls, who will be intelligent and inter
ested, but very likely quite unfamilia
with fruit picking. The crews are nov
being recruited all over the country b.
state councils Of defense. chambers o
commerce. wOmen's organizations an'
other people anxious to help with tb'
apple crop.
Each grower should now get in touch
with the chamber Of commerce. Of
some other representative business OF
ganizatiOn in his nearest town, tel
how many pickers he will need, wheI
he viii need them, for how long, and
what arrangements he can make fol
housing or boarding them.
When his crew Of volunteer pickers
reports for duty he must open little
school for a day or two. and give them
practical instruction in their new work.
Many Of them perhaps have never
climbed into an apple tree, and even
those who have may not understand
that apple picking is a kind Of work
that requires as much delicacy as gath
ering eggs.
Let the grower tell his pickers how
the skin Of an apple. or any other kind
Of fruit or vegetable. is like the tin
that protects canned goods. As the tin
that incloses a can Of tomatoes guards
the sterilized contents from the air.
and as even a slight pinhole in this tin
would allow the air to enter and carry
germs Of decay, so the skin Of an
apple protects its flesh. which is Per-
fectly sterile. and the least cut, even
a dent made by a finger nail. allows
germs to enter and start decay. A cut
so tiny that il can only be detected
under the microscope at picking time
will. nevertheless. start 4 germ inva-
sion which will show up later when
the apple is packed and put into stor-
age.
For this reason great care must be
taken in picking fruit. The grower
should show their pickers how TO grasp
an apple and give it the sbillful twist
that separates il from the tree. He
must caution them against dropping
the apples carelessly in the boxes and
baskets. and see that they have pick
ing baskets and field boxes which are
free from splinters and nails.
This years crop will have TO be
along somewhat different
lines in many sections. With a crew
Of trained pickers and packers il is
TO grade and pack much of
the fruit as fast as it comes from the
trees. There viii probably be a short
age of packers, and many growers Will
have TO devote all their efforts TO pick
ng the crop and getting it into tempo
-ary storage first. and then packing it |
ater.
More good apples are spoiled every /
rear by careleSsneSs between the time /
hey are picked and the time they are
packed than in any other way. Fail
nights are cool, but fall days are apt
o be warm. Apples are left in the or
hard several days and alternately
DOL and heat with the changes in tenn
Derature until their quality deteri-
rates. The proper way to care for
pples is TO put them into common
forage as soon as they come from the
rec. Almost any good tight building
vill answer for the temporary storage
eeded between picking and packing.
When fruit leaves the tree it con-
aims vegetable heat just as an animal
as animal heat, and as the carcass Of
n animal viii spoil after killing IN
sSs it is properly cooled. so fruit will
poll unless cooled. With a tight shed.
Ito which fruit can be carried direct
rom the orchard. the grower can use
le cool nights of autumn to take the
eat out Of his fruit. Doors and win
ows of the temporary storage shed
lOuld be opened at night to admit
entiful currents of cool air, and
hen the sun comes up and the out
de air grows warm again this storage
ace should be closed to exclude the
arm outer air as much as possible,
Id keep the fruit nicely cooled. If
,ples are handled in this simple and
nsible way they viii have prime
,eping quality and the work Of grad
9 and packing can be postponed for
veral weeks.
There is a fairly large apple crop .
roughout the country this year. Il
Mounts TO about two bushels for ev-
Y man, woman and child in the Unit
States. From the consumers stand
int 1t is important to have as much :
this fruit as possible go 10 market
first class condition, so that il may
lp US conserve wheat. meat, fats and
Ter staple foods for our allies. From
: producers standpoint it is just as
portant to harvest the crop in the
st condition because the size of our
Pile crop this year is such that only
best fruit will bring good prices.
Self Defense.
A man should never talk about
n he doesn't understand