Pickin' Cherries Can Be a Joy . . . Stick

Kids would love Donald Peterson's cherry harvester. It has two joysticks!

And it's even better than a video game because you can eat the high score.

It creates a lot of action, too, because the joysticks operate a mechanical arm that shakes the tree hard enough to knock the cherries loose from their stems. Then it rains sweet cherries.

Most of the cherries land on the harvester's soft, wide conveyor belt. The wide belt gently nudges them onto a flat belt where a fan blows away unwanted leaves before they roll into the packing box.

The few cherries that miss the belts become cherry smash!

Wanna see Peterson's weird-looking harvester in action?

Just a second... You need Windows Media Player version 7 or higher to see the short video clip. If you have the player, click an appropriate link below. If you don't have a suitable player, you can get one here. But we suggest you ask an adult for help!

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The company that makes LEGO blocks thought Peterson's harvester just might spark imagination in future engineers. So the company—LEGO Dacta—is using Peterson's video in its latest building kit for middle school and high school students.

The harvester won't win any races, though. Can you guess its top speed? Answer

Why did Peterson build such a strange looking machine? People pickers are getting harder to find. So a state fruit research commission asked Peterson for help.

Can you guess which state grows most of the sweet cherries you find in the produce section of your grocery store? Answer

Peterson is an agricultural engineer with USDA's Agricultural Research Service in West Virginia. And he spends all his time designing and building machines that harvest or sort apples, oranges and berries, as well as cherries.

You'd think one harvester could pick all those fruits, wouldn't you? Well, it can't. Click here to learn why.

Peterson is building the harvester's mate. It's a mirror version that will ride down the other side of the orchard row catching cherries from branches on the far side of the trees.

--By Judy McBride, formerly Agricultural Research Service, Information Staff