From the top of Boston’s new fortystory Prudential Building on a clear day one can easily see the nippled crest of Mount Wachusett forty miles away on the northwest horizon. Lying in between, in the still-rural area beyond the spreading suburbs and the new industries along Route 128 is the Nashoba Valley, the apple-growing region of Massachusetts. It is an apple-conscious countryside. Each spring an apple blossom festival is held there and a Nashoba Valley queen chosen. Over a million bushels are harvested each autumn, and many local industries from warehouses to box manufacturers and suppliers are dependent the year round on the apple crop. Like all farming today apple growing has become more and more a technical process. The trees must be sprayed over a dozen times during the growing season. There are even hormone solutions to keep the fruit from falling off. And there are new varieties of trees. Apple growing requires a large capital investment, much complicated equipment. Yet the whole industry is sustained by one simple and elemental fact: the apples have to be picked. The picking season lasts about a month, with an additional fringe week at either end.
Harvesters Not Exploited
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