It is becoming increasingly apparent that the day when we will mechanically harvest a significant part of the total apple crop is drawing closer. The diminishing supply of competent picking labor is a serious problem for most growers. Research teams in the apple producing areas of the country are busy in an all-out cooperative effort to develop the best mechanical harvesting systems possible. This effort has not gone unnoticed by industry either. United States Steel of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (6), recently sponsored a Focus Forum on Apple Handling Systems in York, Pennsylvania, with the purpose of apple growers, researchers, processors, shippers, and equipment manufacturers getting together and identifying inter-related problems and obstacles which must be accommodated in order to completely mechanize the apple harvest.
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