In packing we aim to use the kind of package the market demands.  The crop this season was all barreled.  The pickers have been on the job long enough so that they are as able to discriminate as to what should go into a barrel and what should not as I am myself.  However, our system is to always have about twice as many barrels open ready for the apples as there are pickers.  The barrels are all faced one layer at least, and two layers if we have the time, and as the pickers come in with approximately half a bushel of apples in the picking sack, they swing the sack over the barrel, lower it, release the catch and the apples are deposited without bruising in any way.

The next picker puts his in the next barrel, and so on, so that each succeeding picker deposits his apples in the next succeeding barrel.  In that way I personally have the opportunity to inspect every half bushel of apples, or, I might say, every apple, as a half bushel of apples in a barrel is shallow, making inspection a very simple matter.  When the barrels are filled they are headed up, put in the packing shed until sufficient have accumulated, and when that point is reached they are loaded out, billed to Minneapolis, where practically all our apples have been sold for years.  All fruit up to date has been sold on a commission basis, the crop for the past season aggregating five carloads, or approximately 800 barrels.

We feel that we have worked out a fairly good method to handle both our trees and our apples, but we have not reached the conclusion that our methods in any way guarantee us a crop of apples, although in ten years, or since the orchard came into bearing, we have never had a season that we did not have a fair crop of apples.  In 1913 we sold seven carloads, in 1914 four carloads, in 1915 five carloads, and the trees as far as they are concerned promise us a fair crop for 1916.  We are working as though this is assured, but in the final analysis it is up to the weather man.

A Member:  I would like to ask Mr. Simmons in regard to his wiring.  We are raising our trees in the same manner, the open-headed trees, and I wanted to ask him where the central ring is placed, in the crotch of the tree or where?

Mr. Simmons:  The ring is suspended by the wires in the center of the tree.  It makes an excellent arrangement.  You can stand on that wire and gather the apples from the topmost limbs of the trees.  The screw-eyes should be put in at what might be termed the center of effort or pull, when the limb is heavily loaded.  If not put in high enough, it causes a rather too acute angle where the screw-eye is inserted and the limb is likely to break.

A Member:  We had considerable difficulty with broken branches.

Mr. Ludlow:  Are the rings put on the outside or the inside of the trees?

Mr. Simmons:  On the inside, so that the screw eyes all point towards the center of the tree.  After three or four years you can’t see the screw eye, it grows right into the tree.