Fruit picking

“ When the apples begin to drop badly it is a pretty sure indication that it is time to pick. If the fruit is to be sold in the local market or for immediate consumption, it may be allowed to get riper than would otherwise be the case. With most varieties one picking is sufficient, but in the case of varieties like the Wealthy which does not ripen uniformly, or like the Twenty Ounce, which does not always color evenly, two or three pickings should be made. Two or three pickings are practically always necessary where fancy fruit is desired, in order to get the ideal size, color, and uniformity. ”

“ The pickers who live near the woods up there bring berries to town in milk pails. The fruit box may be more elegant, but there is a bountiful sound about the milk pail that takes my fancy. Of course, one gets scratched while berry-picking; but in what a good cause. Is there something wrong about boys and girls who prefer boxed berries and smooth hands to wild fruits and scratches? There are thousands of dollars wasted every year that might be working on some boy's or girl's schooling, just because nature's crop of raspberries isn't half harvested. ”

“ The greatest care is used in the picking and handling of the fruit. It may be thought that, when in single layers, fruit is more easily examined, and decaying fruit cleared away; but from many years’ experience in storing fruit in barrels and boxes, only a small quantity is lost by decay or wilting. ”

“ The fruit-pigeons are very fond of the fleshy covering of this fruit; and it is their disgorgement of the hard nuts which collect at the foot of the trees, that often saves the native the necessity of climbing up and picking the fruit for himself. ”

“ The last thing I have learned is that if a man is not careful when picking this year's crop he may pick next year's crop along with it. When apples are pulled too green, as altogether too many have been this season, the twigs on which they grow are liable to break off with the stems. As these twigs are the ones that have the fruit buds for next year's crop, careless picking can do a great deal of damage. When an apple is properly matured, the stem separates from the twig naturally without breaking close to the apple or pulling off the twig. ”

“ In clayey loams, the surface in the matted rows becomes as hard as a brick. Light showers make little impression on it, and the fruit often dries upon the vines. Remembering that the strawberry's chief need is moisture, it will be seen that it can scarcely be maintained in a hard-matted sod. Under this system the fruit is small at best, and it all matures together. If adopted in the garden, the family has but a few days of berries instead of a few weeks. The marketman may find his whole crop ripening at a time of over-supply, and his small berries may scarcely pay for picking. ”

“ Thus we continued to pick over our vines from three to four times weekly. As the ripening of the fruit went on, the sight was truly marvellous to look at. When the season was at its height, the ground seemed almost red with berries. Then the famous doctrine of squatter sovereignty was effectually carried out on my premises, for there were twenty girls and boys upon their knees or hams, engaged in picking berries at two cents a quart. Industrious little toilers they were, many of them earning from one to two dollars daily. Some pickers were women grown, some widows, some even aged women. ”

“ Moreover, fruit should be packed and hauled to storage as soon after picking as possible. Picking and placing directly on the packing table from which the apples are immediately packed is the best plan where it is practicable, but as the weather at picking time in the Eastern [130] States is frequently quite uncertain, it is not always possible to follow this plan as closely as can be done in the West, where dry air and sunshine prevail. Still, wherever there is a considerable quantity of fruit and several pickers, the plan of packing directly from the table is best. ”

“ These need not be discussed here, nor need the methods of picking be spoken of further than to say that while good growers consider it vital not to bruise the fruit nor destroy the delicate bloom, if such injuries can be avoided, pickers in general are not nearly as observant of these important details as they should be. ”

“ The overseer's task is a difficult one, for the pickers least given to prayer are oftenest on their knees, crushing the strawberries, and whether they are "long" or short, much fruit is destroyed. North and South, the effort to keep those we employ off the berries must be constant, especially as a long, hot day is waning. Indeed, one can scarcely blame them for "lopping down," for it would be inquisitorial torture to most of us to stoop upon our feet through a summer day. Picking strawberries, as a steady business, is wofully prosaic. ”

“ For instance, apples, especially those found in the market in the spring, and other fruits, which look very fine, will many times be found to have a tough skin and to be almost tasteless.
In general, fruits of delicate flavor and texture cannot be kept very long after they have ripened. To stand shipping, they must be picked in their green stage; then if they are kept in the right temperature they will ripen after picking. Bananas that are to be shipped a long distance are picked when perfectly green, but by the time the consumer buys them they are usually well ripened. ”

“ Stained drawers, baskets, old barrels, and the like do not help to sell fruit. He would advise shipping black and red raspberries in pint boxes; blackberries and strawberries in quart boxes. He picks his berry plantations every day during the ripening season. Sundays not excepted. No man who is not prepared to work seven days in the week during the picking season, or who can not get help to do the same, will succeed in the raising and marketing of small fruits. He has this year paid two cents per quart for picking blackberries and strawberries, and the same for pints of raspberries. ”

“ Kentish fruit-growers are becoming more particular in picking, grading, packing and storing fruit, as well as in marketing it. A larger quantity of fruit is now carefully stored, and sent to selected markets as it ripens, or when there is an ascertained demand, as it is found that if it is consigned to market direct from the trees there must frequently be forced sales and competition with foreign fruit that is fully matured and in good order. ”

“ Handy Fruit Picker for Farmers and Suburbanites—Take a large tomato can or other tin can and cut a V-shaped hole in one side at the top, about 11⁄2 inches wide and 21⁄2 inches deep. On the opposite side of the V-shaped hole, nail the can to a long pole. This device is useful for picking apples and many varieties of fruit from upper branches where it is almost impossible to reach them by ladder. It also prevents damage to the fruit by falling. ”

“ In those parts of the flesh that have been bruised and the vitality impaired the starch remains unchanged during the process of ripening. By the careful picking of the fruit and wrapping in soft papers, so as to prevent bruising in transit, apples of the proper character can be transported long distances, even beyond the seas, and arrive in good condition. ”

“ The harvest commences as soon as one or two berries at the base of the spikes begin to turn red, and before the fruit is mature, but when full-grown and still hard; if allowed to ripen, the berries lose pungency, and ultimately fall off and are lost. The spikes are collected in bags or baskets and dried in the sun, on mats or hard ground, for two or three days. ”

“ One-third of the vegetable food consists of cultivated fruits, or those which may be cultivated, such as strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries; but while we debit the bird with the whole of this, it is probable—and in the eastern and well-wooded part of the country almost certain—that a large part was obtained from wild vines. The rest of the vegetable matter is mostly wild fruit, such as cherries, dogwood, sour gum, elder berries, greenbriar, spice berries, black alder, sumac, and poison ivy. ”

“ The stacks of grain put up in the field are resorted to by flocks of these birds, which frequently cover them so entirely, that they present to the eye the same effect as if a brilliantly coloured carpet had been thrown over them. They cling around the whole stack, pull out the straws, and destroy twice as much of the grain as would suffice to satisfy their hunger. They assail the Pear and Apple-trees, when the fruit is yet very small and far from being ripe, and this merely for the sake of the seeds. ”

“ But nothing can be so absurd and unnatural than the practice of some, who will take away the leaves from the fruit, to hasten its ripening. The leaves are the lungs of the plants; the conductors and elevators of sap; and nothing can be more injurious than to take them away from the fruit at the very time when they are most needed. The consequence of such an unwise course will be the wilting and withering of the bunches, and, should they ripen at all, they will be deficient in flavor. Good fruit must ripen in the shade, only thus will it attain its full perfection. ”

“ Remove the runners as they appear, and the life of the plant goes to make vigorous foliage and a correspondingly large fruit bud. The sap is stored up as a miller collects and keeps for future use, the water of a stream. Moreover, a plant thus curbed abounds in vitality and does not throw down its burden of prematurely ripe fruit after a few hot days. It works evenly and continuously, as strength only can, and leisurely perfects the last berry on the vines. You will often find blossoms and ripe fruit on the same plant—something rarely seen where the plants are crowded and the soil dry. ”

“ Fruits and their juices require the utmost celerity in the preparatory process, and particularly in the application of heat to the water-bath.
The fruit which is to be preserved either whole or in quarters, ought not to be completely ripe, because it dissolves in the water-bath. In like manner it should not be gathered either at the commencement or the end of the season. The first and the last of the crop have neither the fine flavour, nor the perfume of those which are gathered in the heighth of the season, that is, when the greater part of the crop of each species is ripe at the same period. ”

“ Wild fruits such as grape and pokeberry also showed up in trace amounts. Elsewhere, investigators have found wild fruit forming a major source of food in winter. However, it was not readily available in this area. ”

“ Some of these, it is true, especially some of the summer varieties, will attain a perfect state of ripeness while yet attached to the tree, and some of them will even remain hanging to the twig, until they reach that condition of over-ripeness in which they lose a portion of their fine juices and become mealy, or incipient decay may set in, so as to make them rotten at the core. Hence, in nearly all varieties, it is found best to pluck the fruit a little prematurely, and we are guided by the natural indication of the falling of a portion of the crop. ”

“ It certainly is the best of the fall-bearing kinds, and deserves a place in every garden. There are more profitable market varieties, however; but, if the suckers are vigorously destroyed, and the bearing canes cut well back, the fruit is often very large, abundant, and attractive, bringing the highest prices. As a plantation grows older, the tendency to sucker immoderately decreases, and the fruit improves. ”

“ The luxuriance of the peach, the plum, the pear and the apple, is such, in this region, as to afford the most perfect possible specimens. The vigor of fruit-trees, in such a soil and under a heaven so congenial, produces fruits which are very large without being coarse-fleshed; the flavor concentrated, and the color very high. It is the constant remark of emigrants from the East, that our apples surpass those to which they have been accustomed. ”

“ All fruits should, if possible, be freshly picked for preserving, canning, and jelly making. No imperfect fruit should be canned or preserved. Gnarly fruit may be used for jellies or marmalades by cutting out defective portions. Bruised spots should be cut out of peaches and pears. In selecting small-seeded fruits, like berries, for canning, those having a small proportion of seed to pulp should be chosen. In dry seasons berries have a larger proportion of seeds to pulp than in a wet or normal season, and it is not wise to can or preserve such fruit unless the seeds are removed. ”

“ Very few know much about the names of varieties, but eagerly purchase that which appears the most attractive. The grower who can make his crates of berries, when opened, look better than others near, will always receive good prices. If he tops off poor fruit with large berries, he will scarcely find a market eventually. If he always fills his baskets well and honestly, and gives good weight, taking pains to make his packages appear attractive, his fruit will soon be in much demand and spoken for in advance. ”

“ No one can long be successful whose methods are not careful and honest in the packing of apples.
Equipment for Harvesting the Apple Crop.—There are some who insist that the only way to pick apples is to use a basket lined with cloth. These insist that the use of the basket in picking is the most careful method and that the bruising of the apples is reduced to a minimum. ”

“ My trees are troubled with canker-worms, and my apples with codling-moth. I spray with London purple and Paris green three times, when we have the time and water to spare. Think I have reduced the codling-moth. I pick my fruit by hand and sell some apples to the neighbors in the orchard. I feed culls to pigs. I never tried distant markets. I have apples dried on shares for family use. It does not pay to dry for market. I am partially successful in storing apples in barrels in a cellar under the house. I find Rhode Island Greening, Ben Davis, Duchess of Oldenburg and Emperor keep best. ”