Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1917-08-31
HUGE APPLE CROP
This Years Harvest viii Be
Picked by Volunteer
Lab0rers.
Government Food Administration Is
Aided by Local Bodies in All
Parts of the Country.

The great apple crop of 1917 will be
harvested in most sections by volun-
teer pickerS, because of the peculiar
labor situation this year. Throughout
the nation state councils of defense,
commercial organizations, women's
clubs and other public-spirited persons
are organizing harvesting crews for
the big job. These crews are for the
most part composed of young men and
women intelligent and interested, but
quite unfamiliar with fruit picking.
Each grower should now get in touch
with the chamber of commerce, or
some other representative business or
ganization in his nearest town, tell
how many pickers he will need, when
he will need them, for how long, and
what arrangements he can make for
housing or boarding them.
When his crew of volunteer pickers
reports for duty he must open little
school for 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
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 fncloses can of tomatoes guards
the sterilized contents from the air,
and as even 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 it can only be detected
under the microscope at picking time
will, nevertheless, start a 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 skillful twist
that separates it 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
managed along somewhat different
lines in many sections. With a crew
of trained pfckers and packers it is
customary to grade and pack much Of
the fruit as fast as it comes from the
trees. There will probably be short
age of packers, and many growers viii
have to devote all their efforts to pick
ing the crop and getting it into tempo
rary storage first, and then packing i
later,
More good apples are spoiled every
year by carelessness between the time
they are picked and the time they art
packed than in any other way Fal
nights are cool, but fall days are ap
to be warm. Apples are left in the or
chard several days and a1ternatel!
cool and heat with the changes in TEN
perature until their quality deteri
crates. The proper way to care fo
apples is to put them into common
storage as soon as they come from tn
tree. Almost any good tight buildin
will answer for the temporary storag
needed between picking and packing.
When fruit leaves the tree it cor
, tains vegetable heat just as an anima
, has animal heat, and as the carcass O
an animal will spoil after killing III
less it is properly cooled, so fruit wi
, spoil unless cooled. With a tight sheC
into which fruit can be carried direC
from the orchard, the grower can us
the cool nights of autumn to take th
heat out of his fruit. Doors and viii
: dows of the temporary storage she
, should be opened at night to adm
r plentiful currents Of cool air, an
; when the sun comes up and the ou
y side air grows warm again this storag
! place should be closed to exclude tt
o warm outer air as much as possibl
and keep the fruit nicely cooled.
!. apples are handled in this simple ar
n sensible way they will have prin
e keeping quality and the work of gra
v ing and packing can be postponed f,
several weeks.
There is a fairly large apple crt
throughout the country this year.
r amounts to about two bushels for e
g cry man, woman and child in the Uni
n ed States. From the consumers stan
g point it is important to have as mut
o of this fruit as possible go to mark
= in first class condition, so that it m;
!. help us conserve wheat, meat, fats al
o other staple foods for our allies. Fro
q the producers standpoint it is just
\. important to harvest the crop in t
# best condition because the size of O
Q apple crop this year is such that on
the best fruit will bring good prices.