OCR Text |
Show Around II PICK AND HANDLE APPLES CAREFULLY There are several rules of picking apples which must be adhered to if one expects to pick his crop with a minimum loss. The apple should be grasped in the palm of the hand, so that when being removed from the tree nrpwnrp nnnllpd tn the fruit bv the palm of the hand and Inside of the lingers will not injure it. Never grasp an apple with the tips of the fingers. With very large apples the ends of the fingers can be used to help hold the apple and aid in breaking the stem from the fruit spur. With long-stemmed long-stemmed apples the end of the thumb should be placed on the stem. By a slight tipping of the apple it is released re-leased from the spur and the stem usually breaks naturally. Short-si'emmed Short-si'emmed apples should also be grasped in the palm of the hand and .the'stem will often break naturally at the spur by a slight tipping of the fruit. If such apples "come hard" they will often break more easily at the spur by twisting the fruit a half-Jurn while the apple is still grasped in the palm of the hand. In picking, the apple should be laid . carefully in the picking receptacle, not dropped in. If a picking-bag is used, care should be taken to see that the picker does not lean on the bag so as to squeeze It against the ladder or limbs of the tree or rest It on the rounds of the ladder. As the day wears on it is comfortable to lean against the bag, forcing it against a branch of the tree or a round of the ladder. Many growers favor the use of the half-bags so that undue pressure is not applied to the apples by their own weight. Considerable damage is often done to the. fruit in emptying the picking receptacle Into the orchard box. Perhaps Per-haps you have stood in your orchard when a careless picker was emptying his picking-bag or bucket. It sounds not unlike a gatling gun working in the distance. To give an idea of the possible pos-sible Injury to a bag of apples dropped Into a field box carelessly, the following follow-ing little experiment Is Interesting. Fifty-nine Stayman Winesap apples, free from Injury, were placed in a picking-bag during the harvesting of this variety. The person using the bag stood with a slightly stooped posture, pos-ture, so that' the bottom of the bug, when opened was at a height of three Inches above the top of the apple box into which the apples dropped. A count for injuries was made after the apples had dropped Into the box. Of the 59 apples, 15.3 per cent' were found to be free from injuries; 3.3 per cent had slight bruises; 75.1 per cent had bad bruises, and 3.3 per cent had punctured skins. Many growers allow the pickers to fill the orchard boxes too full of apples. ap-ples. These boxes should be filled so that the apples are below the level of the top of the box. |