The story this week is again a  historical one. It was written by Wally Smith and dated April 11, 1957.

“One of the reasons why fruit growing has lagged behind many industries is the difficulty in mechanizing the various operations involved in the production of tree fruits.

The machine has taken the place of the man in the wheat field and increased his output more than tenfold. The back breaking job of  hay making has undergone a mechanical revolution, and now hay is cut and raked, baled and picked up by machinery without a man putting a hand to it and at incredible speed.

Perhaps tree fruit production by its very nature never will approach the degree of mechanization possible in some other branches of agriculture, but we are making some progress.

Slowly the persistence and the genius of man is overcoming some of the obstacles that stand in the way of putting a machine to do the work of a man in the orchard.

Advent of the air blast sprayer was the first big step toward mechanization, and this has been a time and money saver for the  grower.
The rotary mower for the cover crops and for chopping up prunings is another machine that has cut down the man hours. Ted Trump’s tree tiller is a notable contribution in the tillage department.
here was little relief, however, for the bigger jobs in the orchard- pruning, thinning and picking- until a few years ago when chemical thinning showed good promise, and about the same time pneumatic pruning tools and the Steel Squirrel made an appearance.

Oliver’s Ted Trump made a bid in this field with his orchard Giraffe, but this failed to meet popular favor because it had to be hitched to a tractor in order to operate. The Giraffe seems to have found a useful place in building, mining, telephone, telegraph, and other industries.
We are glad however, that Ted Trump did not give up the idea of a mechanical ladder for the orchardist, for his newest machine called the Girette, seems to be a long forward step. It’s Trump’s answer to the Squirrel which was becoming popular in the Oliver district when the Girette appeared on the scene.
Of the two machines, the Girette seems to be superior as it can operate with a lower tree clearance, is more maneuverable, and the operator’s cage comes right down to the ground level so that he can work the whole tree from top to bottom branches. It costs more money but I’ll take the Girette.
Whether it is a Squirrel or a Girette, either one will speed up pruning, thinning, and picking and, we are told by the growers who use them, at the end of the day’s work the operator is not half so tired as he would be without the aid of a mechanical ladder.
For the older orchardist that is an important consideration. These young fellows may be able to chase up and down a ladder all day long and be fresh enough to go dance at night, but the end of the day finds the older man pretty well tuckered out.
It is getting increasingly difficult to hire help, even if you can afford to do so, but with a Squirrel or a Girette you can increase your out put by 50% or more, and you can do it with less work.
Maybe we should be growing our apples on dwarf trees so that we can pick the entire crop from the ground, but this grower isn’t going to switch to dwarfs until they have been proved right here in this district over a period of many years.
In the meantime we have to get along with our large trees and the mechanical ladder is going to give us a lot of help.”

When Wally advocated for the Girette, he was unaware of the major weakness of it which was the tipping over of the machine. The boom of the Girette was capable of swinging out from either side of the machine. The problem arose when the operator had extended the boom and a tire rolled into a dip in the ground, that is when it tipped over.

That discovery took Wally into his work on the Rotheisler Kangaroo.
I find it note worthy that even in Wally’s day (1957) there was an orchard labor shortage.

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