The Green Forest tribune., 1917-08-31
HARVESTING GREAT
 l9l7 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 Storage-locai Clubs Aid Federal Food
 Administration.

This years apple crop will be har- vested in most sections with volunteer pickers. men and women, boys and girls. who will be intelligent and inter- ested, but very likely quite unfamiliar with fruit picking. The crews are now being recruited all over the country by state councils of defense chambers of commerce. women'S organizations and other people anxious to help with the apple crop.
 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 a 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 those who have may not understand that apple picking is 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 tfis tin would allow the air to enter and carry germs of decay, so the skin of an apple protects it's flesh, which is per fectly sterile, and the least cut, even a dent made by 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 pickers 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 a short age of packers, and many growers will have to devote all their efforts to pick ing the crop and getting it into tempo rary storage first, and then packing it later.
 More good apples are spoiled every | year by carelesSneSS between the time they are picked and the time they are packed than in any other way Fall nights are cool. but fall days are apt to be warm. Apples are left in the or chard several days and alternately cool and heat with the changes in tenn perature until their quality deteri- crates. The proper way to care for apples is to put them into common storage as soon as they come from the tree. Almost any good tight building will answer for the temporary storage needed between picking and packing. When fruit leaves the tree it con | tains vegetable heat just as an animal has animal heat, and as the carcass of an animal will spoil after killing un- | less it is properly cooled, so fruit will spoil unless cooled. With tight shed, into which fruit can be carried direct from the orchard, the grower can use the cool nights of autumn to take the heat out of his fruit. Doors and win dOws of the temporary storage shed should be opened at night to admit l plentiful currents of cool air, and when the sun comes up and the out side air grows warm again this storage place should be closed to exclude the warm outer air as much as possible, and keep the fruit nicely cooled. If apples are handled in this simple and sensible way they will have prime keeping quality and the work of grad ing and packing can be postponed for several weeks.
 There is a fairly large apple crop throughout the country this year. It amounts to about two bushels for ey- cry man, woman and child in the Unit | ed States. From the consumers stand point it is important to have as much of this fruit as possible go to market | in first class condition SD that if may help us conserve wheat, meat, fats and other staple foods for our allies. From the producers standpoint it is just as important to harvest the crop in the best condition because the size of our apple crop this year is such that only l the best fruit will bring good prices.
 Self-Defense.
 "A man should never talk about