from the tree and to deliver it to the packers free from leaves and twigs. The usual custom is to pay the pickers not by the day, but by the barrel. The price varies, according to the character of the work and the privilege given the workmen, from 6 to 8 cents per barrel. Thirty barrels a day is considered a day's work, although an expert can, under favorable circumstances, gather 70 to 80 barrels in a day. The fruit is seldom sorted as it is taken from the tree, unless it be of an early variety which is designed for immediate shipment. The fruit as it is picked from the tree is placed in sacks with a hoop in the mouth and a webbing strap to pass over the shoulder to suspend it, as is shown in the engraving. From these sacks the fruit is carefully emptied into barrels which are beaded before being removed from the orchard. The pickers in the group shown in Plate XI picked fast enough to keep two men constantly engaged in heading, and three teams busy drawing the barrels to and from the store house, about one-half mile distant. The fruit house upon this place is shown in Plate XIII. It has a capacity for about 10,000 barrels; has two cold chambers in the basement and an ice chest of large capacity in the second story. With such provisions fruit is successfully kept in store until the April or May succeeding picking. Fruit has been preserved in good order in such houses for two years, and Maiden's Blush apples have been kept nearly a year. Good keeping qualities characterize the apples grown in this region. The fruit itself is of high quality, free from wounds, from in sects, or defacements by fungi. This, together with careful handling, insures good keeping qualities when proper attention to storing is given. In this respect the practices are somewhat at variance. Some maintain that a frost proof building is pref erable to a cold storage room where ice or artificial cold is used. Fruit from the frost proof houses is said to stand longer when placed upon the market. Where ice or other artificial cold is used the chambers are sometimes allowed to become abnormally dry, and as a result the apples shrin', occasionally as much as a peck per barrel. Under such conditions heavy loss is incurred, not only from the loss in weight and bulk, but

PLATE XIII.-Fruit House of Wm. F. and Robt. Brown, Hancock Co., W. Va.

as well in the quality and flavor of the fruit. Cold rooms should therefore be maintained at normal degree of moisture. For this purpose the inexpensive moisture guages can be profitably used.

Assorting and grading the fruit, as has been stated, is not usually done until after picking and storing is completed. The barrels are then rolled out, unheaded, and the fruit poured upon an assorting box which is built with a slat bottom standing upon a slant, one end being lower, and of a convenient height for working over, and yet high enough so a barrel can stand under the spout. The dimensions are as follows: Side boards are usually made of 10 or 12 inch stuff, and so placed as to give an 8 inch side board, inside measure. The width is 3 feet 3 or 6 inches insi le measure, and the slats for the bottom are 4 to 6 inches wide, and are placed about 1 inch apart. The length of the whole is 10 feet; the front legs are usually 2 feet 6 inches long, making the height over all 3 feet 4 inches, while the rear legs are 4 feet 4 inches, raising the top of the side boards 5 feet 2 inches above the floor. A platform is usually built about such machines to facilitate getting the fruit from the barrels into them. The slatted bottom allows all twigs and leaves that may have fallen in among the apples in barreling in the orchard to drop through. The inclination of the bottom facilitates the work of assorting by allowing fresh fruits to roll into the space vacated by those which were rejected or admitted to the barrels. An apron, usually made of a grain sack, is placed across the top of the empty barrel, and when a sufficient number of apples have been rolled upon it to make the facing tier, they are carefully lowered into the barrel and the apron withdrawn until they are placed; the apron is again laid across the open mouth of the barrel and a quantity of fruit is allowed to roll upon it; when sufficiently full the assorted fruits are again lowered into the barrel. This operation is repeated until the barrel is filled sufficiently to admit of the fruit rolling from the assorting box over the apron and directly into the barrel. By this arrangement one handling of the fruit is obviated, or to state it in another way, the fruit is moved by gravity

after once being placed upon the sorter-no more lifting is.

necessary.

As at present constructed, these devices admit only a single barrel, i. e., only one grade of apples can be placed in a barrel at a time, without picking the fruit out and lifting it into a basket or barrel for that grade. I would suggest that the Vshaped opening by which the fruits are guided into the barrel, be increased from one to two or three, according to the number of grades of fruit desired. That gates be provided at th entrance of these guide-ways, so that the fruit can not be admitted until the person in charge wishes it to roll towards the barrel. By starting the fruit in the direction of the grade to which they belong, all further handling would be obviated. This I realize is an approach to the device used by the orange growers for grading oranges, but if it can be made to subserve the needs of the apple grower, so much the better.

In all operations connected with the preparation and shipment of fruit, care should be taken to keep the packages neat and clean. A tidy looking barrel may be the only point of preference between one consigument and another, yet it may be sufficient to influence a buyer.

Tree Pruning. During the last decade and with the increased acreage of fruit trees, has come a great change for good in the methods of tree pruning. But not as yet has the acme of perfection been reached in this art. To-day trees are headed low, the fruit can be gathered with less labor and less peril to the workmen, and the work of spraying can be easily, quickly and cheaply attended to. The "lackancy" of the present practice is that the individual peculiarities of the variety in han l are not carefully studied. A general scheme for tree pruning is adopted, and while it may be ideal for Ben Davis and Bald win, it is a source of injury to the Willow or King. In other words, the form and habit of growth of the last two varieties named are so different from that of the others that a different method of pruning should be practiced.

The Willow and King load upon the outside of the tree, and in habit of growth, their branches are long, slender and decum