10063 Gathering Sweet Potatoes, Philippine Islands

Igorrotes are people who live in the Philippine Islands. These islands were found many years ago by the first white man whose ship sailed round the world. The Igorrotes live now much as they lived then. Their houses look like pointed haystacks. The floor is on the ground. The roofs are made of long dried grass tied over frames of poles. The sides are boards or split bamboo. Under the pointed part of the roof is a storehouse for rice, sweet potatoes and other food. The family lives in the rest of the house.

No one wears many clothes. The short skirts of the women are often leaves or woven bark. No one wears shoes. They work day after day in their rice or sweet potato fields. Many fields are on the sides of steep mountains. The people’s toes grow very strong clinging to the ground. Igorrotes are only beginning to use tools for working in the ground. They had used only their feet, hands and pointed sticks. Igorrote women carry baskets and water jars on top of their heads. These girls are not strong enough for that. Their backs hold the heavy baskets of sweet potatoes.

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13734 Red Raspberry Field in the Lake Shore Fruit Belt, Hilton, N.Y.

What a large tray full of berry boxes the boy has. Can you count them? Each box holds a quart of berries.

This is a big red raspberry field. When the berries get ripe the man who owns the field needs many helpers. Boys and girls and men and women come to pick berries. They must be picked soon as they are ripe or they will spoil. These bushes are full of thorns. They scratch the hands and arms.

The sun is very warm. All the pickers wear big hats. At noon they rest under the trees while they eat their lunch. Then they go back to work. How many boxes do you think that little boy can pick in a day? He puts many a juicy berry into his mouth.

The pickers fill box after box with the sweet, red fruit. It takes thirty-two bixes to fill a bushel crate. The crates of berries are sent to the city market to be sold.

The city people are glad to get fresh ripe fruit. Perhaps your mother makes re-raspberry pies or tarts. All boys and girls like raspberry jam or jelly on their bread. Would you like to be a berry picker in this field?

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29060 Picking Apples

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3736 Navel Oranges, Fruit and Blossoms, California

Oranges can only grow in warm lands. California and Florida are the places where oranges can grow in our country. The orange trees are not like apple trees. Apple trees do not begin to grow until the blossoms have all dropped from the tree. But an orange tree often has blossoms and fruit at the same time.

The branches of the orange trees are cut so that the trees stay small. Then oranges are easier to pick. Orange trees begin to bear fruit when they are about four years old. The winter is called the rainy season in California. It rains almost every day. But in summer there is no rain. The people have to dig ditches to bring water to the orange grove. They get the water from streams that come down the mountain sides. A ditch is dug around each tree and is filled with water.

When the oranges are ripe the pickers cut them from the stem. Each picker carries a sack. When his sack is full he empties it into a box. The pickers wear gloves. They handle the fruit carefully.

The boxes of oranges are sold to a large fruit company. This company packs the best oranges in boxes to be sent to other parts of the country. Sometimes oranges travel a thousand miles before they are eaten.

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23083 Lemons as They Grow in Florida

If you owned this lemon tree you could have all the lemonade you wished. Only you must have plenty of sugar to go with the sour lemon juice. If you think the juice of a ripe lemon is sour, you should taste a green one. Lemons are a little like oranges and grapefruit. They all have a tough skin which is full of oil. The inside is pulp and in different sections. All have shiny green leaves and sweet smelling blossoms. They all need a warm climate or they will not bear fruit. You can plant the seed of an orange, a grapefruit or a lemon in a pot and it will grow.

I must tell you a strange thing. Lemons in orchards do not grow from lemon seeds. A shoot from a lemon branch is grafted on a sour orange tree. After that the branches that grow are lemon branches, but the roots are sour orange roots. Ask your father to tell you how apple trees are grafted.

Most lemons ripen in the winter. When picking time comes men pick them very carefully. They are not thrown down, for that would bruise them. They are picked into bags, then rolled slowly into boxes and then packed. Many are picked green as bananas are and put away to ripen.

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