Grapes -- Varieties -- United States; Viticulture -- United States
But few appliances are needed in picking grapes. Shears are a
necessity. These are of special make and can be bought from dealers in
horticultural supplies, costing from 75 cents to $1. Some growers,
after picking, pack the fruit in the field in the receptacles in which
it is to go to market. The greater number, however, pick in trays
which are taken to the packing-house and allowed to stand until the
fruit is wilted before packing for shipment. Trays may be of several
sizes and shapes, but are usually shallow flats holding from
twenty-five to thirty-five pounds. The picked fruit is taken from the
vineyard to the packing-shed in a wagon with flexible springs to
prevent jarring and jolting. Large growers usually have specially
built one-horse platform wagons, the front wheels of which pass under
the platform.
_Picking accounts._
It is no small matter to keep a picking account with pickers.
Business-like growers use one of several kinds of tickets or tags in
keeping accounts. Probably the most common method is to give a ticket
to the picker when the receptacle of grapes is delivered, the grower
either keeping half of the original or a duplicate of it. Objections
to ticket systems are that the pickers often lose the tickets, are
irregular in returning them, or exchange them with other pickers. To
obviate the disadvantages of tickets, some growers use tags which bear
the picker's name and are attached to his person. These tags have
marginal numbers or divisions which are canceled by a punch as
pickers deliver the grapes. Still another method is to keep book
accounts with each picker in which case payment is made by the pound,
each receptacle being put on the scales as brought in from the field,
credit being given for the number of pounds. It is the duty of those
in charge to see that each picker finishes the row or the part of the
row to which he is assigned, and that he does not wander over the
vineyard in search of the best picking.
_Packing-houses and their appliances._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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