Farm and Garden

King Country Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 232, 9 February 1910, Page 3

Farm and Garden

HARVESTING APPLES. It is rather difficult to decide when apples should be picked, says a contributor to the Western Farmer. Early picking reduces the danger of loss from windstorms, but it prevents the fruit from taking on that attractive colour which is so important a factor in its sale if we grow it for the market. Many kinds of apples do not colour up well until the leaves fall, and allow the sunshine of late autumn to do its artistic work. Some varieties are greatly improved by allowing them to remain on the tree until after frost. The writer says:—

"If storage of the apples is to be a factor, another thing comes up to be taken into consideration in determining the proper time for picking. The idea used,, to be prevalent that apples, to hold well in storage, should be picked before they were mature. But the United States Department of Agriculture has made extensive experiments to determine the correctness of this theory, and it has been shown to be wrong. Nearly all varieties stand cold storage best if thoroughly ripe and well-coloured, but not over-ripe. Such varieties as are subject to scald should be given special attention in this respect, as it is found that the scald is worse on apples picked before maturity. Thoroughly ripe apples, wellcoloured, are said to be not nearly so much subject to scald as are green, uncoloured apples." The eagerness of some growers to rush their apples to the market early in the season is a great mistake. Immature fruit brings a low price almost always. All fruit gathered and sold when unripe amounts to taking just so much away from the crop that would sell at a good price if left to mature, and is poor policy. As regards ripening and colouring, the writer goes on to say:—

"Here is a pointer of the greatest importance: The matter of having the fruit nicely coloured and ripened when picked is of such importance that "many of the best known growers who make a speciality of fancy grades have adopted the practice of picking the apple trees over two, three, or four times. At each picking they take off only such fruit as is ripe, wellcoloured and possessing the right size. The rest of the apples are allowed to hang, and it has been found thai they will increase gently in size toward the end of the season and will colour up and otherwise improve long after the first lot would have fallen to the ground if not taken off. Of course, where the fruit is cheap and the orchard generally neglected this method of picking would be too expensive, but in the north-western States the fruit business is conducted for the revenue there is to be made out of it, and all progressive growers see to it that their orchards bear fruit good enough to demand careful attention at picking time." The importance of careful picking is not to be overlooked by the man who is in the fruitgrowing business for the money he can make at it. The writer has this to say in concluding his very practical article: — "There is something of a knack to be cultivated in picking apples, and unfortunately, expert apple-pickers are not to be had. The fruitgrower is usually obliged to put up with ordinary day labour for the purpose, and to make up for their ignorance and carelessness he has to give the most careful supervision to the work of his hands. In many places applepickers get the prevailing day wages. Apples are sometimes picked by the box, the bushel, or the barrel, as the case may be, but this practice is not always to be recommended. When it is indulged in the price paid may be from 4 to 10 cents a box. The payment for work for the picec. as it is called, does not give the owner of the orchard the beat results. The rapid picker, in his eagerness to make a large wage each day, will sacrifice carefulness, for speed, thus

giving his employer a lot of bruised fruit, and many-whsre the stems have been pulled out. and the skins torn. Apples packed in this condition will begin decaying before they reach the market. Apples should be picked with the stems on and not torn from the trees. When the stem is pulled out of the apple the skin is usually broken and an excellent opportunity for decay is given.