Picking peaches

One of the jobs we used to do when we worked in California was to go to Marysville, Yuba City area and pick peaches. The peach trees were laid out in the field in straight rows and the trees were the same distance from one tree to the next tree. You could pick peaches on the lower branches standing on the ground. But for the peaches on the higher limbs you had to use a ladder. The ladder use was a high three pronged ladder. The first three or four steps of the ladder was wide then they narrowed down and you went toward the top. The third leg of the ladder was attached at the top by a hinge. When you pick the ladder up the hinge on the third leg of the ladder came back into the ladder. You position the ladder facing the tree in the place he wanted to be and then pushed out the third leg of the ladder into the tree thus making a tripod. You ascend the ladder to the higher limbs the tree and pick peaches there.

The temperature in this part of California at peach picking time was over hundred degrees. But when you were picking peaches in among the branches the temperature could get up to as high as 120°. You would get hot and sweaty and peach fuzz would filter down around the neck of your shirt and itch would drive you crazy. You put the peaches you picked into a canvas bag. This bag had a built-in hoop at the top with straps around your neck. The bottom of the canvas bag was open and had to straps attached to both sides. You would take over straps and bring them up to the top of the loop and attached them there. By doing this you double the bag in such a way that the peaches could not follow the bottom. When the bag was full of peaches you came down the ladder went over to a wood box undid the straps and that peaches fallout the bottom into this wood box. We were paid $.07-$.08 a box the amount of money you made dependent on how hard you could work. I could pick somewhere between 150 and 200 boxes a day. In the 1950s that was good money for a teenager.