Of Time and the Weather

A month ago the apple growers, of central Washington faced disaster. Ideal weather in the vast, irrigated Wenatchee, Yakima and Upper Columbia River valleys had brought them their fifth biggest apple crop. With a minimum ceiling for growers ($2.75 a box as against the 1939 top of $1.25), this whopping crop would net them their biggest gross in history --$75,000,000.

But there were no apple pickers. Tons of prime Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Winesaps, Jonathans and Newtowns seemed doomed to rot on the ground, depriving the U.S. of one-quarter of the 1944 apple crop. By last week an untrained army of 36.000 men, women & children (house wives, clerks, merchants, students, Mexicans, migrant farm workers, Indians off their reservations) battled time and the weather to save the apples. Public schools were closed.

Although pickers made good money (12 1/2-c- a box; a crack picker can make $22 a day), there were still not enough of them when the harvest started. The Government sent in 1,000 German prisoners of war, from the late Marshal Rommel's Afrika Korps. The P.O.W.s lived in special camps, were paid 80-c- a day in scrip if they met the easy standard of 65 boxes a day.

The Afrika Korpsmen, cocky and arrogant, regarded any kindness as a sign of American softness; one group staged a sit-down strike until they were given coffee; two other squads took to shaking trees and thumbnailing apples. Going lightly on the Nazis, the Government cut their individual daily quotas down to 40 boxes. But generally, the P.O.W.s made little trouble, and their work meant saving the entire crop.

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