SB 360
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Copy 1

ROTHER JONATHAN SERIES”—NO. 5

PACKING
oud) MARKETING
FRUITS

Copyright, 1905
By The Fruit-Grower Co.
St. Joseph, Mo.

5
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PACKING AND |

MARKETING
FRUITS

How Fruits Should Be Handled to Carry
to Market in Best Condition and
Present Most Attractive
Appearance

\
By F: Av, WAUGH
Professor of Horticulture, Massachusetts
Agricultural College

PUBLISHED BY THE FRUIT-GROWER COMPANY
SAINT JOSEPH, MISSOURI
1905

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Brother Jonathan
Series

Booklet No. 5

Publisher’s Note 4

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The author of this little book is Prof. F. Au@
Waugh, of the Massachusetts Agricultural College,” q
and formerly of Kansas. He has for many years ~
made a special study of the fruit markets of the ~

United States, Canada and Europe, and of all the

methods employed in handling and selling fruit. ©

He is also the author of a more extensive work on

the same subject, entitled ‘‘Fruit Harvesting, Storing ©

and Marketing,’ published by the Orange Judd Co.,
New York. We shall be happy to supply this book
to those who may desire it direct from The Fruit-
Grower office for $1.00, postage prepaid, which is
the publishers’ price.

I

Introductory Remarks

The buying and selling of fruit in America is
1argely in the hands of commission men, speculators,
and others professionally engaged in the traffic, but
not interested directly in fruit growing. This ten-
dency to transfer the commercial part of the business
out of the hands of the fruit-growers and into the
hands of quite another set of men will probably con-
tinue to increase the difference pointed out. In other
words, the business of trading in fruits belongs less to
the farmers and fruit-growers than it does to the
commission men, speculators, cold storage men, pro-
fessional buyers, transportation men, and others of
that class.

It is hardly necessary, however, to preface the fol-
lowing pages with an explanation that they are not
addressed to the men of this latter class, even though
they do have the largest interest in fruit marketing.
The fruit-grower continues to have his interest in the
matter, too; and it is the interest of the producer that
The Fruit-Grower has first in mind. There are two
other reasons why the present author does not under-
take to instruct the speculators and commission men:
First, they are usually quite able to take care of
themselves; second, the present scribe has never
studied their business from their own standpoint.

It is the plain purpose of this book, therefore, to
help the fruit-grower. If anything can be done to
help him in disposing of his crop at a profit the
purpose of this book shall have been fully satisfied.

There can be no doubt but that the fruit-grower
needs to study carefully this business of fruit mar-
keting. It is one thing to grow good fruit, and quite
another to get profitable returns from it. The diffi-
culties are growing constantly larger and larger. The

6 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

ad
development of business continually introduces new —
complications. New markets have to be reached.
New customers have to be consulted. New ideas in ©
transportation are brought forward. New packages
are proposed every day. New schemes are in sight —
everywhere. Market conditions are every day becom-_
ing more and more complex. Unless one studies the
subject carefully and ceaselessly he must soon fall
behind the times. j
The complexity of the subject stands as one of the
chief reasons why the fruit-grower should study
deeply into the fundamental questions underlying the —
whole subject of fruit marketing. Only in this way —
can he properly understand the various and often
surprising facts which come to his acquaintance. :
A fruit-grower, to be successful in his business, —
must know how to grow good fruit, and he should be ©
_ able to do this at a minimum cost. It is often said ©
that good fruit sells itself, and this is true to a cer- —
tain extent, so that a knowledge of fruit-growing is a.
first essential in fruit selling. Yet after the fruit is ©
grown there are still two matters which the fruit-_
grower ought to understand in order to make his ©
undertaking a financial success: First, he should ©
have a broad knowledge of the general principles
governing the business of trading in fruit; and sec-
ond, he must be master of an infinite number of little ©
details, every one of which is essential to complete —
success. a
A few of these little details can be set forth in a
work like this, but many of them can be learned by —
experience only. The main purpose and use of this —
little text book, from the nature of things, must be to
set forth in systematic order the general principles —
involved. Let us understand therefore, at the outset,
that it is impossible to tell everything which is ©
important. There will still be many things for the —

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 7

fruit-grower to learn after he has mastered all the
instructions here given. Still these instructions are
none the less necessary.

It is the plan of this booklet to treat the different
fruits separately, discussing picking, packing, stor-
age, etc., for each. The apple is placed first, because
it is the most important of our American fruits.
Many of the methods employed in marketing apples
are applicable also to other fruits, so that in subse-
quent chapters’'it will often be necessary to repeat
statements already made or to refer to what has
gone before. The latter alternative will usually be
adopted.

The index at the back of the book will doubtless
make it easy to find any information required.

The Fruit Markets

The man who expects to grow fruit for market
ought to understand something about the’ fruit mar-
kets. There are many different markets, and they
all have their peculiarities. For a proper understand-
ing of the matter it will be best to divide these mar-
kets into two general classes: (1) the retail markets,
and (2) the wholesale markets. In this country the
wholesale markets are much the larger and absorb
the great majority of all fruits. The retail markets
are numerous and growing, however, and ought to be
more commonly and more carefully cultivated.

There sre great advantages in selling fruit at retail
whenever the fruit-grower can do it. The expenses
of freight, the charges of the commission man, and
the loss by various sorts of shrinkage are all elim-
inated. These often amount to more than the initial
price of the fruit.

In selling fruit direct to one’s own customers at
retail one can cultivate a much larger list of vari-
eties. Whereas the wholesale grower is obliged to

Co

8 ERUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

confine himself to one or two varieties, like Ben
Davis or Missouri Pippin, the retail grower can sell
almost any good apple. This enables him to cover a
much longer season. r,

The mistake is often made of thinking that any —
sort of fruit can be sold in the home market. When
one ships apples to the city markets one expects to
send the best; but poorly graded, poorly colored, sec-_
ond class fruit will go in a country store or with |
country customers. One ought to remember that in
these direct sales he is held personally responsible to —
an extent not known in the large markets. Further-—
more the customer who buys a lot of apples at home
in an apple country is entitled to expect something —
good. It is an old saying that the shoe-maker’s chil- —
dren go barefoot; and it is an unpleasant modern —
illustration of it that one can buy better apples in
New York than in the apple regions, or that one can ~
get better Chicago beef in London than in Chicago. —
Such things ought not to be, and everybody knows
they ought not. If one expects to cultivate his retail
trade he must serve his country customers decently, —
and that means that they must have good goods.

There are many other ways of selling fruit at %
retail except to peddle it out on the streets of one’s
home village. Some men of enterprise gradually
work up a list of city customers to whom they ship a ~
certain quantity of fruit every fall. Any right-minded
banker in Denver, Kansas City or Pittsburg would —
sooner have three barrels of fine apples fresh from
the grower, whom he knows, than to get the same
fruit at half the price from a commission house or
groceryman in his own city. There are thousands of —
barrels of apples sold direct at retail in this manner ~
every fall, and it is one of the best ways ever devised
of selling fruit. ‘From producer to consumer direct” ‘a

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 9

has long been the dream of trade; and here we have
it in perfection.

Several growers and packers have recently
adopted the plan of selling direct and securing their
customers by magazine advertising. Almost all the
leading magazines, such as Harper’s, Scribner’s, etc.,
last winter carried advertisements of growers ‘and
packers who offered to send fine Greenings, Baldwins
or Jonathans by express at $3 the box.

These different methods of reaching the consum-
ers direct are coming more and more into favor, and
wherever they can be operated they should be freely
tried.

The wholesale market in this country is growing
to be rather complicated. It is difficult to give a
comprehensive sketch of it in a small compass.
Briefly we may say that the grower who has pro-
duced a crop of apples has several different methods
open for disposing of his crop. The following are
the most common: ‘

1. He may sell the crop on the trees for a lump
sum, say $750 for the orchard. The buyer picks,
sorts and handles the fruit.

2. He may sell the crop on the trees at a fixed
price per barrel. The best way is to make a straight
price, say $1.35 a barrel for firsts and seconds, allow-
ing the buyer to grade them to suit himself. Some-
times two prices are made, say $1.65 for firsts and $1
for seconds. In this case there is apt to be some dif-
ference of opinion about the grading. In either case
the picking and packing may be either at the expense
of the buyer or of the seller, as may be agreed.

3. He may pick. grade and barrel the fruit, and
sell it to a buyer on the ground.

4. He may pick, grade and pack the stock and
send it direct to a commission man, who sells it for
what he can get and returns the proceeds.

10 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

5. He may place the fruit in his own storage ©
house and sell it out during the winter When he
thinks the market most favorable. "4

6. He may send his fruit to a city cold storage iA
house, where he can rent space for 30 to 50 centsa
barrel for the season, and he will then draw his fruit
out and sell it (usually through a commission dealer)
at any time during the winter when he thinks best.

7. He may sell his fruit on “joint account,” if he >
can find any dealer who will go into the scheme with
him . In this case the dealer pays the grower a cer- _
tain fixed rate per barrel at picking time, which rate
is considerably less than the probable selling price of
the fruit. It may be $1 a barrel. Then the dealer
takes charge of the fruit in storage and sells it off
during the winter whenever he has the best oppor-
tunities. After the fruit is all sold the dealer and the ~
grower have a final settlement. At this time the
amount originally paid the grower is deducted from _
the net proceeds and the difference is divided equally
between the dealer and the grower. This method has
been found to work eminently well in a few cases, —
but it is not capable of wide application. ?

8. He may ship his fruit to a foreign market. In
the case of apples this usually means Liverpool or |
London. These foreign shinments may be made
through American agents, or direct to salesmen in
the cities of final destination. Such shipments should —
not be made except after correspondence with the ©
agents. During the last few years such shipments
have usually paid fair prices, the net receipts being —
sometimes more and sometimes less than would have —
been secured by selling the same fruit at home. The
foreign market, however, offers a splendid outlet for
much of our American fruit crop, and it ought to be
carefully cultivated. It is the principal market for

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PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 11

the Canadian crop, especially the Nova Scotia apple
crop.

Every man must make his own choice between
these various methods of selling. It is not possible to
say that one method is better or worse than another.
The greater a man’s knowledge of the fruit trade and
the larger his financial resources the longer he can
afford to hold control of his own fruit. If he knows
nothing about the business and is obliged to have
some money right off to buy chewing tobacco or pay
his taxes, it is probably better for him to sell the
fruit on the trees or on the ground,

Picking Apples

It is a delicate question to determine just when
apples ought to be picked. There are some reasons
why it is desirable to pick as early as possible. Early
picking reduces the danger from wind storms and
saves considerable loss from windfalls under all cir-
cumstances. On the other hand, apples color up best
when they are left comparatively long on the trees.
Many varieties do not color thoroughly until after
the leaves thin out considerably. Some varieties can
be left to advantage long after the first frost. This
depends a good deal, of course, on the variety itself
and its habit of holding onto the tree. Northern Spy
and Ben Davis hold on extremely late, while Wealthy
and Wagener are apt to fall as soon as they are ripe,
or even before.

If apples are to be sent to storage another factor
comes into consideration in determining the proper
time for picking. It used to be thought that apples
should be picked before they were mature in order
to have them hold well in cold storage. The extens-
ive experiments of the Department of Agriculture in
recent years have shown that this idea is wrong.
Nearly all varieties stand cold storage best if thor-

12 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. w

4

varieties as are subject to scald should be given spe-
cial attention in this respect, as it is found that the
scald is worse on apples picked before maturity. .
Thoroughly ripe apples, well colored, are not nearly a
so much subject to ‘scald as are green, uncolored —
specimens.

The importance of having the fruit nicely colored —
and ripened when picked is so great that many of
the best growers who make a specialty of fancy 2
grades have adopted the practice of picking the |
apple trees over two, three, or even four times. At ©
each picking they take off such fruit as is ripe, well
colored, and up to size. The rest of the apples are |
allowed to hang, and.it is found that they will
increase greatly in size toward the end of the season ~
and will color up and otherwise improve long after
the first lot would have fallen to the ground. Of
course this method of vicking over the trees several
times would be too exnensive with cheap fruit and ~
with all poorer grades of apples. It is strongly rec-
ommended, however, for early varieties and fancy
grades.

There have been all sorts of mechanical pickers
advertised, but none of them has ever become pop-
ular. They are of two kinds. The first kind is in- —
tended to pick a single apple at a time out of the
higher branches, and consists of some sort of a
pocket hung on the end of a long pole. These con-
trivaneces are too slow and cumbersome for any com-
mercial work. The second style of. apple picker
presents some modification of the old practice of ©
shaking apples off the trees. It furnishes some kind
of a snread held under the branches, upon which the
apples are shaken down. While this method is
cheap enough to make it commercially available, it _
is too rough for the exacting demands of present-day

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 138

business. By all means the best way of putting up
commercial apples is to pick them by hand from the
trees.

There is something of a knack in picking apples,
but unfortunately expert apple pickers are not often
to be hired. The fruit-grower is usually obliged to
put up with ordinary day labor and to make up in
the carefulness of his own supervision the lack of
experience on the part of the pickers. Apple pick-
ers usually get the prevailing day wages, that is
from one dollar to one dollar and seventy-five cents
a day. Apples are sometimes picked by the bushel
or barrel, but this practice is not common and is not
to be recommended. When it is indulged in, the
price paid is from eight to fifteen cents.a barrel.
The writer has recently been told, on pretty good
authority, of a picker who nicked one hundred bar-
rels of apples from the trees in one day. Any such
slam-banging work as that ought to be prohibited in
any well regulated orchard. The ordinary picker
will pick from twelve to twenty barrels a day.

Apples should be nicked with the stems on and
not torn from the trees. Where the stem is pulled
out of the apple, the skin is usually broken and an
opportunity for decay given.

Some pickers prefer to pick into a sack tied over
the shoulder. The best contrivance, however, is
undoubtedly. the swinging-bail half-bushel basket.
This is made in various styles, usually of oak or elm
splints. These baskets are now used in such large
quantities that they can be bought at very reasonable
prices. If fine fruit is to be handled with special
care, it is worth while to have the baskets padded
inside. Each basket should be furnished with a hook
made by bending a strong three-eighths inch wire
into the form of a very crooked S. This can be
hooked over the limb of the tree so as to leave the

14 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

‘Swing-bail Half-bushel Basket .

picker free to use both hands. When the picking is
being done in large trees this same hook allows the
basket to be let down to the ground by a strap or

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 15

rope, where it is emptied by an assistant, thus mak-
ing it unnecessary for the picker to climb up and
down the tree for every basketful.

Picking is greatly expedited by the use of suitable
ladders. The best ones are of two forms. The first
form is the step ladder, which should always have
three legs instead of four. These step ladders are
made in large quantities now for this particular kind
of work. It is probably cheapest to buy ready-made
ladders if any considerable number is wanted. Of
course, any handy man can make one or two such
step ladders if that is more convenient than to buy
them.

The second type of ladder used in apple picking
is adapted for taller trees. Itis of the ordinary form,
that is with two rails. Very often the two rails are
brought together at the top, making the top pointed.
This makes it easier to adjust the ladder securely
into or against the top of the large apple tree. This
ladder should also be as light and strong as possible.
They are made in large numbers and sold at low
prices.

Various practices prevail with regard to the im-
mediate disnosal of apples when they are taken from
the trees. Sometimes they are placed in piles on
the ground. Sometimes they are put into barrels
without sorting and left in the orchard; sometimes
they are put unsorted into barrels and carried to the
temporary storage house; sometimes they are imme-
diately sorted, barreled, headed up, and sent to stor-
age. If the stock is going to cold storage, which is
now the customary method, the last named plan of
handling the fruit is undoubtedly the best. It cer-
tainly is a mistake in all cases to leave the fruit on
the ground even for a few hours. If.there is good
storage at home and handy by, it is a very good
practice to put the apples into barrels unsorted and

16. FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. i
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take them immediately to the storage house, where © ef
they can be sorted and packed more at leisure :
Under all circumstances, however, they ought to be
put into as cool a place as possible with the least —
possible delay. In handling fancy grades of stock in
barrels, it is probably best to pick the fruit, sort, ~
pack and head it up at once and put it immediately
into cold refrigerator cars, sending these off as expe-
ditiously as possible to the cold storage plant. This
method is actually practiced on a large scale by some
of the best growers. There is no extraordinary
expense in it, in fact nothing out of common except
the expense of the refrigerator cars, which has been
shown to be entirely profitable with good fruit.

When apples are taken to the temporary storage
houses without sorting, it is best to grade them over
as soon as convenient. This is more necessary if the
grade of the fruit is low. If there is considerable
fungus, they should be sorted at once, all first-grade
fruit being put by itself. In case the fruit comes
from the trees in extra good condition, with no fun-
gus and very few culls, there is not so much urgency
in this early sorting. In general, however, it is a
mistake to leave the fruit ungraded, as is sometimes
done, up to the time when it is sent to market,
which may be late in the spring.

Sorting Apples

The grading of the fruit is extremely important
from every point of view. There is hardly anything
which affects the price secured more than this.
Many fine apples bring outrageously low prices
because they are carelessly, ignorantly, or deceit-
fully graded and vacked.

Proper grading requires good judgment and con-
siderable experience. The man who sorts and packs
the fruit should be the expert of the gang. The man-

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PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 17

ager can afford to pay him good wages, although as
a matter of fact such men rarely secure more than
two dollars a day.

We have already recommended that the sorting
be done immediately after the fruit is picked, either
in the field or in the temporary storage house. Some
men spread the fruit on the ground for sorting. It
is a good deal better to have sorting tables, which
should be three feet wide and six to eight feet long.
They should be eight inches deep and should be put
on trestles or legs so as to stand about three feet tour
inches from the ground. It is good policy to have the
bottom and sides padded to prevent bruising of the
fruit. We have frequently seen the bottoms made
with slats, the idea being to allow the leaves and
other rubbish to sift through. This is not a good
practical construction. In the first place it weakens
the bottom, and in the second place these slats are
. always inclined to bruise the fruit more or less. It
is easy enough to dispose of the rubbish in some
other way.

On the table like that here descr bed from two
to four barrels of fruit can be svread out at once. It
is desirable to have a considerable quantity of fruit
within the reach of the man who is sorting in order
that he may work rapidly and secure a uniform
grade.

Some of these sorting tables are made with a
chute or spout at one end, usually furnished with a
cloth spout leading into the barrel, through which
the apples are allowed to run. If managed with
some care the apples can be handled in this way
without severe bruising. In the judgment of the
writer it is much better, however, to sort the apples
into baskets. ‘hese should be of the kind already
described for picking. The half-bushel swinging-

is FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

bail basket can be let down into the barrel and the |

fruit poured out with a minimum of bruising.

It is desirable that sorting be done as much as ©
possible by one man. Frequent shifting about -on
this job always gives an uneven grading of fruit.

The question of whether a certain apple should
be put into the first or into the second grade is
largely a matter of judgment in the end. It depends
also upon the run of the lot. If the apples are all
running large, then medium sized specimens should
be put among the seconds. In other words, it is
more important that a barrel of apples should be
uniform in size than that they should attain any
particular size. The question is relative rather than
absolute.

Nevertheless the Apple Shippers’ Association has
adopted a rule, which is departed from when neces-
sary, and which is enforced in critical cases. Their
rule is as follows:

The standard for size for No. 1 apples shall be
not less than 2%4 inches in diameter, and shall
include such varieties as Ben Davis, Willow Twig,
Baldwin, Greening, and other varieties kindred in
size. The standard for such varieties as Romanite,
Russet, Winesap, Jonathan, Missouri Pippin, and
other varieties kindred in size shall not be less than
214%4 inches. And, further, No. 1 apples shall be at
time of packing practically free from the action of
worms, defacement of surface, or breaking of skin;
shall be hand picked from the tree, a bright and
normal color and shapely form.

No. 2 apples shall be hand picked from the tree;
shall not be smaller than 2% inches in diameter. The
skin must not be broken or the apple bruised. The
grade must be faced and packed with as much care
as No. 1 fruit.

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 19

The Apple Barrel

Before going on to see how apples are packed, it
will be best to stop a moment to consider the stand-
ard apple packages. Of these the barrel stands first.

The standard American apple barrel has the fol-
lowing dimensions: diameter at top, 1744 inches;
circumference at middle, 64 inches; length of staves,
28% inches. This is known everywhere as the stand-
ard apple barrel, or the one hundred quart barrel.

In Nova Scotia, and occasionally in Ontario, an-
other barrel is used considerably different from the
one just described. It is just a trifle longer, but the
most distinctive difference lies in the fact that the
staves are straighter. The barrel is made nearly
eylindrical. The dimensions of the Nova Scotia bar-
rel are: diameter of top, 1714 inches; diameter at
middle, 19 inches; length of staves, 29 inches. The
two barrels may be more readily compared in the
following table:

COMPARISON OF NOVA SCOTIA AND AMERI-
CAN APPLE BARRELS

Diameter Diameter at Length of k
at Top Middle Staves Capacity
IAMECTICAN:. «205+. «'s 17% 2014 28% 100 Quarts
Nova Scotia....... 17% 19 29 96 Quarts
The American apple barrel is a stronger package
than the Nova Scotia barrel and will stand rough
handling, such as loading on and off cars and trucks,
better than the straight stave barrel. When it
comes to shipping by boat across the Atlantic, how-
ever, the Nova Scotia barrel has the call. This is
because the longer straighter barrel, when stowed
on its side on shipboard, does not rock so much as
the barrel with bended staves. It therefore keeps
the fruit in better condition in going across.

20. FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

There is, of course, a certain advantage to the ~
growel i. using a ninety-six quart barrel in place of ©

a one nundred quart barrel. Four quarts of apples
are worth saving. At this rate a man would gain
one baiiel in twenty-five, which would be a saving
of four ver cent. In most factories any adjustment
which accomplishes a saving of four per cent is con-
sidered well worth making. A smaller barrel fur-
nishes an even three bushels, which is all the pur-
chaser is really entitled to. The question of adopting
the ninely-six quart barrel in the United States has
often been discussed, but the proposition has never
made much headway. It will doubtless be a long
time before we ever come to it. Be

Apple barrels are made out of all sorts of lumber,
usually from such timber as is not very valuable for
other purposes. Elm is used to a considerable extent
and makes a good barrel. Hickory used to be used,
but it is now tov exvensive. Hemlock and spruce
are used to some extent; so is cheap pine. Chestnut
and birch are occasionally worked wun» into barrels.
The hoops are usually made out of the same stock.
although occasionally timber is worked up into hoop
stock which is not fit for anything else. In some
parts of the country split hoops are used, in which
case young birches and large alders are worked up.

The best custom for one buying anple barrels is
to get them knocked down, staves, heads and hoops
separate. It is best, of course, to buy this stock in
car lots. It is then delivered on the farm of the
grower to be worked up- into barrels on the premises.
A small cooper shop can be easily rigged up. In the
apple growing sections itinerant coopers go about
from farm to farm during the summer and autumn
working this stock uv into barrels. A good handy
man on the farm, with a little practice, can learn to
put up apple barrels himself. A small kit of tools is

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PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 21

required, but nothing very elaborate or expensive.
The apple barrels made up in this way cost all the
way from fifteen to thirty-five cents each, depending
very largely, of course, on the original cost of the
stock. During the last two years stock has been
very scarce and high, owing, it is said, to the opera-
tion of a barrel trust. At present the vroduction of
barrel stock seems to be catching uv with the de-
mand, and the tendency is toward easier prices.

In many places it is customary to use second-
hand barrels for packing avples. The common flour
barrels are the ones usually impressed into this ser-
vice. A common flour barrel has the same capacity
and dimensions as the standard svunle barrel. and
answers the purpose fairly well. However, a second-
hand barrel can never be made to look as good as
new. In many cases dirty barrels are bought and
are used withotit »rover cleaning. In such cases
they detract greatly from the avpearance of the
fruit, and the commission man knocks off on the
price accordingly. The apple grower who has a con-
siderable crop to handle cannot afford to bother
with flour barrels. He should by all means use
fresh-made apple barrels.

Apple Boxes

During recent years there has been a good deal of
discussion as to the merits of the apple box. Many
growers believe that there is a future for apples
packed in this way. While the use of the box has
béen strenuously objected to in some quarters, espe-
cially by the commission men and fruit dealers, it
has not always been clear that their advice was dis-
interested. In fact, it is common knowledge that in
some cases they have bought apples in barrels and
repacked them in boxes, making quite a profit for
themselves thereby. The writer feels justified in

22 ERUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

relating here an item of personal experience. Two
years ago we had some Gravenstein, McIntosh and ©
Fameuse apples ready for market in October. We
wrote to the commission men with whom we were
doing business at that time—a thoroughly reliable —
firm, by the way—asking them if they would advise
us shipping in boxes. Their reply was about as fol-
lows: “The fruit is yours. You can do as you please
with it. Our advice would be, however, not to use
any boxes.’’ Inasmuch as we were anxious to learn
how the fruit would nandle, and as we had the boxes
on hand, we divided the shipment, sending one-half
in barrels and one-half in boxes. The fruit was all
of the same grade, but that in boxes was wrapped in
paper. : The whole lot was sent to the commission
man whose advice has just been quoted. When the
returns came back we found that the barrels had
sold for $2 each, which was the top quotation at the
time; but the boxes had also sold for $2 each. In
other words, one bushel of apples nicely wrapped
and packed in boxes brought just as much as three
bushels of the same fruit in a barrel.

The three boxes cost 45 cents. A barrel at that
time was worth 35 to 40 cents. A little more time
was consumed in packing the three boxes than in
packing one barrel. The cost of the paper wrapping
may be fairly disregarded.

The great advantage of the box lies not so much
in the fact that it displays the fruit to better advant-
age, for it does not always do so, but in the fact that
it presents a quantity of fruit which many consum-
ers prefer to purchase. There are very few city
families who find it convenient or economical to buy
a barrel at one time. The quantity is more than the
family will consume without waste, and there is no
place in the house where there is room for the barrel
to stand. A bushel of apples, however, is not too

,

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 23

much for the smallest family, and a neat square box
can be easily stowed even in a New York City flat.
Experience has demonstrated that the apple box
has come to stay . It is bound to be used, and its use
will be extended. This does not mean, however, that
it will supplant the apple barrel. It certainly will
not do so, at least for many years to come. The
apple box must be used only for fancy grades of
fruit. This is not so much because the package costs
more, as because the expense of selling it is some-
what greater and because the person buying a pack-
age of this kind expects it to contain something
good. If the purchaser buys a box of apples and
finds the fruit inferior, his resentment is much
greater than if he has been cheated on a barrel of
apples. Most purchasers have grown accustomed to
being more or less swindled on apples in barrels.

A great many different boxes have been proposed.
These have been of different sizes, different forms,
and differently constructed. We seem to be settling
down rather rapidly, however, to a bushel box of
standard size and construction. This box, which is
now the most common, has the following inside di-
mensions: 10x11x20 inches. This gives a capacity of
2,200 cubic inches. A standard bushel contains
2150.42 cubic inches, so that the box furnishes a little
over the standard: struck bushel (not a heaping

bushel).

A somewhat larger box is rather commonly used
in Canada, but it is not to be recommended.

These boxes are made with the ends of three-
quarter inch stuff, and with the top, bottom and
sides of lighter stuff. These last may run anywhere
from one-quarter to one-half inch, but three-eighths-
inch stuff is about right.

There have been some experiments recently with
smaller boxes, especially with half bushel sizes. The

- 24 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

writer feels confident that something of this kind ~

will eventually find a place in the market, but noth-| ; .

ing yet has been accomplished which can be given
general recommendation.

The bushel basket has been used to some extent,
especially in the Chicago market, for apples, and has

some advantages. It is easy to handle and pleases ~

the customer. Such bushel baskets with covers cost |
about $12 a hundred. Half bushel baskets of the ~
same form cost from $10 to $11 a hundred.

Packing Apples

A man who packs avples should have some expe-
rience, and the judgment born of it, in-order to do
his work well. Next to the man who grades the
fruit, the one who packs it has the greatest respon-
Sibility. Many a sale of good fruit has been spoiled
by poor packing . When fruit is to be shipped some
distance, as across the ocean, the packing must be
irreproachable. If barrels are poorly packed the
fruit works loose, becomes bruised, and in many
instances quite worthless.

In packing a barrel with apples the barrel is
placed on its head with the bottom out. Some good
clean apples are put in for ‘‘facers.’’ It is best to
pour in 20 to 30 such avples at the start—just about
enough to cover the head. The packer then places
these in even circular rows, beginning around the
outside and working in, setting each specimen with
the stem down. It is important to see that the apples
in this first tier—the facers—fit snugly together.
Then a second tier is put on, facing stems down like
the first. Now the real filling of the barrel begins.
The sorted fruit, preferably placed in the swing-bail
half-bushel basket already recommended, is poured
in. This basket can be let down into the barrel and
emptied with the least possible disturbance of the

,

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 25

faced layers. After each half bushel of loose fruit
has been poured in the barrel should be vigorously
shaken. This shaking is essential. It settles the
fruit together, and prevents the otherwise disastrous
loosening when the barrel is shipped. When the
barrel is practically full the ton layer (which will be
the bottom layer after the barrel is packed), is faced
stems out in as neat a manner as possible. When
the apples are all in and this last layer of facers on,
the fruit should stand up two or three inches above
the ton of the barrel.

The head (or what is really the bottom of the
barrel) is then put in place. A barrel press is now
necessary. There are two types of barrel press in
common use—the screw and the lever nress. The
writer prefers the latter. With either one the head-
ing proceeds in the same manner. The upper hoops
of the barrel are slightly loosened. The head is
pressed down even with the chines, the hoops are
driven home, and some sort of cleat is tacked in to

help hold the head in place.

The barrel is then marked with the stencil of the
tLrower or packer, and with the name of the variety
alid grade. Sometimes it is also marked with the
neme of the dealer to whom it is to be shivped. It
jz then ready for delivery, either to the buyer or to
ihe storage house.

ae packing anples in boxes the fruit is all put in
by hand, especially when it is to be wrapped in
paper. Care must be taken to get the boxes full. It
is even harder to make a box of apples full and
tight than a barrel. Some shippers cover the packed

fruit with paper and make it solid by putting in a

quantity of excelsior next to the cover. This is prac-

ticed more especially when sending boxes across the

ocean, but is not to be generally recommended.,
When apples are nicely packed in boxes they

26 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

should go in in rows and tiers just as oranges are
packed. On the Pacific Coast, where all these tricks
are better understood than on this side of the Great
Divide, they do this think excellently well. Mr. E. C.
Dickerson of North Yakima, Wash., in the October,

Fig. 1.

1904, number of The Fruit-Grower told how they
do it there. Here is his description:
There are some thirty or forty sizes of apples,

ee
=

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 27

covering all the varieties and their various sizes or
grades, which can be packed into the standard apple
box in thirty or forty different styles. For commer-
cial packing and shipping requirements most of the

ordinary grades of- apples grown can be handled in

seven or eight different styles of packing, of which

six different styles are shown and described below.
Figure 1 shows a four-row box of apples. This

28 ERUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. e

box is the largest sized apple that can be packed into
the four-row grade. The box contains just ninety-
six apples. There are nine grades of the four-row
apple, the smaller of which is shown in Figure 2 and

Fig. 3.
contains 128 apples. Every layer in this box of 128
is packed in the same manner as that shown by the
top layer. In the box containing ninety-six the width

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 29

is too great to allow of their cheeks being all turned
up, so in the layers below, according to the size of
the apples, one or more of the layers are placed
stem down.

Figure 3 shows the largest apples that can be
packed into the five-row grade. The box contains

Fig. 4.
just 140 specimens. This grade cannot be packed
with a long and narrow apple, as there must be four
layers in this box.

30 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

Figure 4 shows the smallest five-row apple that
can be packed in this grade. The box contains five
layers and 250 apples. All the layers in this grade
are placed in the same manner as shown in the top

Fig. 5.
layer. This grade cannot be packed with a long
apple. The five-row grades, which are sometimes
called straight fives, are found in twenty-three dif-

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 31

ferent grades reaching from 140 down to 250 speci-
mens in each box.

Figure 5 shows an odd grade of five-row apples.
Without this style of a pack it is almost impossible

. Fig. 6.

to pack all the apples from your orchard and have
them all packed neatly and correctly. The box
shown in Figure 5 contains 213 apples. In this

o2 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

grade the center of every apple in the third and fifth
layers comes directly over the center of its corres-
ponding apple in the first layer. The center of every
apple in the fourth layer comes directly over the
center of its mate in the second layer. There are
three grades of this style. In one the first row will
contain eight apples, the second seven, the third eight
again and then seven and eight, making a total of 188
apples in the box. In the second grade of this style,
the first, last and every row will contain eight apples
with the box holding just 200 specimens. In the
third grade of this style the first, third and fifth rows
will contain nine apples, while the second and fourth
will contain only eight, making the box hold 213
apples.

The sixth and last style of packing shown is rep-
resented by Figure 6. This box will contain seventy-
two apples. Only the first of its four layers is
shown. The core of all apples in the third layer will
come directly over their mates in the first layer, but
not over the cores of any apples in the second layer.

Nothing has been said of the various grades of
six-row apples, as they are too small to offer to the
apple-eating public, though some pack and ship them
to the penny fruit stands. The top layers of the
apples in any of the grades must be high enough
that when the cover is nailed on, the cover will touch
each and every apple in that layer and touch it hard
enough to compel every apple in the box to remain
in touch with its neighbor apple in the box, the walls
of the .box itself, or both, as the case may be.
throughout its entire veriod of transvortation.

When a box is finished packed the apples at the
end of the box must not be more than an inch above
the top of the box, while the center of the box should
be from one to two inches higher, so as to make a
beautiful curve for the top of the box, which helps

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 33

to hold the apples in the box together more snugly.
Though every person has not the gift for the making

; of a good apple packer, most of them after a careful
reading of the above can after more or less practice

succeed in packing neatly and rapidly. But remem-
ber practice makes perfect. In box apple packing
rapidity and perfection do not go hand in hand.

Apple Storage

The storage of apples presents one of the largest
factors in the modern apple business, because the
bulk of the trade is with winter fruit, which is
always stored for a greater or less veriod. Even
from the first there has been some storage. In olden
days apples used to be stored in niles in the orchard,
in pits in the ground, in bulk in the hay mow, in bins
in the cellar, and in various other ways. Nearly all
of these old-fashioned ways are still practiced to
some extent, although they have very little influence
on the modern annple business. \

Following these crude methods of storage there
came into practice a few years ago different methods
of handling apples in specially made storage houses.
At the beginning these were seldom cr never sup-
Pooled (with artificial refrigeration. The -theory: of
construction was simvly to provide a well insulated
wall and then to cool down the storage chamber by
ventilation. Such houses or storage compartments
are no wall classed together under the name “com-
mon storage.’’ “Common storage” is distinguished
‘from ‘‘cold storage,’’ the latter referring to such
houses or chambers as are supplied with artificial
refrigeration.

There has been a strong tendency in the last few
years to do away with the common storage in favor
of the genuine cold storage. Great improvements

have undoubtedly been made in the process of cold

34 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

storage, and the matter is much better understood
than it was a few years ago. Such storage is there-
fore both safer and cheaper. Nevertheless the com-
mon storage has not altogether gone out of use. One
of the largest dealers in New York State—a man of
wide practical experience in all systems of storage—
recently told the writer that he would as soon have
apples in common storage as in the best cold storage.

Fig. 7—Mr. Green’s Storage House
This is perhaps an extreme view, but it shows that
the difference between the two systems is not so
gicat aS we have sometimes been led to believe.

The construction of a house for common storage
may best be understood by examining one of two con-
crete cases. Figure 7 represents the storage house
of Mr. Charles L. Green, East Wilton, Maine, which
was built in 1903. This building is 30x40 feet, with

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 35

12 foot posts upon the sills. It also has a cellar or
lower story dug out of a gravel bank and facing
toward the south. There is a large door to this base-
ment story so that a load of apples can be backed in
without unloading. The cellar walls are built of
quarried granite laid solid in cement. The underpin-
ning is of granite laid in Portland cement and lined
with brick . The basement will held one thousand
barrels, and the first floor will hold approximately
the same amount.

The building is sheathed on the outside with
matched hemlock covered with thick sheathing paper
and this in turn covered with clapboards and well
painted. The studding were also sheathed again
inside and then a new course of studding set around
inside of the first and sheathed again. This gives two
dead air spaces and three matched sheathings besides
the paper, clapboards and paint. The floor between
the storage room and cellar is double, with hemlock
for the under course and matched birch on top with
heavy paper between. Both storage rooms have
double doors and windows with matched board
blinds inside. There is an attic room which will
accommodate twelve hundred empty barrels. The
building cost twelve hundred dollars.

Another very excellent building for the common
storage of apples which has been frequently described
and which is certainly a model of its kind is that
shown in figure 8, and owned by Mr. T. L. Kinney,
South Hero, Vermont. This house was built in 1888
and stands 30x50 feet on the ground. It has a base-
ment which will accommodate 1,000 barrels, and the
main floor will receive an equal number. There is
an attic for the storage of empty barrels, cooper’s
stock, etc. The walls are constructed in the follow-
ing manner: The studding are 3x4 inches. On the
outside is a course of one-inch matched pine covered

36 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

with building paper and again with clapboards. . On
the sides of the studs small furring strips are run
in. Upon these a lath and plaster coat is made from
stud to stud. This produces a double dead air space.
On the inside of the stud is another one-inch course

Fig. 8—Mr. T. L. Kinney’s Storage House

of matched pine covered by building paper and by
one-half-inch boards all over the inside. There are
glass windows and heavy matched board blinds. This
house cost fifteen hundred dollars and has been
entirely successful.

Various other houses more or less like the two
here described have been built in all parts of the
country. So far as the writer knows these have

ee

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 37

proved uniformly successful in the northern states
where they have been well built and intelligently
managed. In the southern states they are less satis-
factory, and in any case they are unreliable when
mismanaged.

The two important things to be looked after in
building these houses for common storage are (1)
insulation, and (2) ventilation. ;

Insulation is provided as described above by mak-
ing very tight walls with dead air spaces. Formerly
it was recommended to fill the spaces with sawdust
or some similar material. This is now known to be
inadvisable.

Ventilation should be secured by having a reason-
able number of windows which may be easily opened
and shut. These should be near the floor or else
special ventilators should be provided at the floor
level, opening in all sides of the building. An ade-
quate discharge for warm air must also be provided
for from the upper part of the storage room. This is
usually secured by ventilating shafts running from
the storage room to the roof. A circulation of aif
can be secured at critical times with this construc-
tion by lighting a lamp and placing it on a small
shelf in the ventilating shaft. The windows of such
storage houses are opened at night when the tem-
perature is low and are closed early in the morning
before the thermometer goes up. In this way a
storage house can be thoroughly cooled off and can
be held at a very uniform temperature when once it
is cooled . Of course the cooling is not so positive as
with artificial refrigeration, nor can it be so quickly
accomplished.

The construction of cold storage houses with arti-
ficial refrigeration is rather a complicated matter,
which even the refrigeration engineers do not under-
stand any too well. It would be going too far to take

38 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

up that matter here, especially as very few apple
growers ever undertake to build such storage houses.

The ordinary practice in dealing with cold storage
is for the grower or buyer of the apples to send them
to a refrigerating house in the city. Space in these
houses is rented. The ordinary price is from thirty
to fifty cents a barrel for the season. A certain tem-
perature is guaranteed. The apples may then be
removed whenever the owner desires.

It should be clearly understood by everyone who
undertakes the cold storage of apples that the func-
tion of the storage house is merely to maintain a
uniforrn temperature of a desired degree throughout
the compartment and during the storage season.
Cold storage will not make number one fruit out
of number two; nor will it altogether prevent the
“natural process of deterioration. It simply checks
the ordinary processes of decay. It appears that
many persons have expected too much of cold storage
in the past.

While it is not necessary for°the apple grower to
know about the different systems of mechanical
refrigeration, it is, nevertheless, a matter of consid-
erable interest to him. Storage rooms are sometimes
cooled directly with ice, although the direct cooling
systems are not in very common use. Usually the
rooms are cooled by the evaporation of the liquid
gases. This gas is allowed to evaporate in or near
the storage room and during its evaporation it takes
up the heat from the room or fruit stored in it,
thereby lowering the temperature.

The following description of the methods usually
employed is taken from Mr. G. Harold Powell’s bul-
letin entitled ‘‘The Apple in Cold Storage.”

The refrigerating gases generally used are anhy-
drous ammonia, sulphuric acid, and carbonic acid
(also known as carbon anhydrid and carbon dioxid).

~ PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 39

The cold temperature in the warehouses is usually
produced by either of two methods, commonly known
as the compression and the absorption systems.

The compression system takes its name from the
fact that the refrigerating gas—whether ammonia,
carbonic acid, or sulphuric acid—is first compressed
in a machine called a compressor. Heat is generated
by the compression; the gas is then cooled and con-
densed in pipes or coils called the condenser, either
immersed in water or having water running over
them, and this converts the gas into a liquid. The
liquefied gas then passes an expansion valve to pipes
or coils called the refrigerator cooling coils or cooler,
where’ it is evaporated by the heat which is with-
drawn from the surroundings. The gas formed by

the evaporation of the liquid returns to the com-

pressor, is again condensed, then re-evanvorated, and °
the cycle of refrigeration is repeated over and over.

In the absorption system the gas is obtained by
heating strong aqua ammonia in a still, thereby
driving off the ammonia gas. The gas is then re-
duced in a condenser to a liquid in a manner sim-
ilar to the compression system. The liquefied am-
monia produces refrigeration by evaporating in the
cooling coils, and the gas is then absorbed by weak
aqua ammonia in coils called an absorber. The
resulting strong liquor is then pumped back to the
still. The cycle of refrigeration is repeated contin-
uously, and consists, first, in the generation of a gas
by heating strong aqua ammonia in a still; second,
in condensing the gas which is deposited from the
water to a liquid in the condenser coils; third, in its
evaporation to a gas in the cooling or refrigerator
coils; fourth, in its absorption by the weak aqua
ammonia in the absorber; and fifth, the ammonia
liquor is piped to the still and redistilled.

There are three general methods of producing the

40 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

desired temperatures in cold-storage rooms, and
these are known as the direct-expansion, the brine-
circulating, and the indirect or air-circulating sys-
tems. All three systems may be used in a cold-stor-
age plant, and in a given room or compartment the
air-circulating system is sometimes used in connec-
tion with the brine or the direct-expansion systems.

In the direct-expansion system the liquefied gas
evaporates directly in the cooling refrigerator coils
or pipes which are placed in the refrigerator rooms.
The heat used in the evaporation of the gas is
absorbed from the room or from its contents, and the
temperature is thereby reduced. The gas then

returns to the compressor in the compression sys- —

tem, or to the absorber in the absorption system, and
after being distilled in the latter case’ begins the
refrigerating cycle anew.

In the brine-circulating system, the liquefied gas,
instead of evaporating directly in coils in the storage
room, evaporates in pipes surrounded by brine, or in
a brine cooler. The heat used in the evaporation of
the gas is absorbed from the brine rather than from
the room and its contents, as in the direct-expansion
system. The cold brine is then pumped to coils in
the storage room and the heat of the room and its
contents is absorbed, by the cold brine. The warm

brine is then returned to the tank or cooler from .

which it started and is recooled, while the gas
returns to the condenser or to the absorber to renew
the cycle of refrigeration.

In the indirect or air-circulating system the air
in a well-insulated room, which is sometimes called
a coil room ora “bunker room,” is first cooled, either
by the direct-expansion or by the brine-circulating
system. The cold air of the coil room is then forced
through ducts to the storage rooms. After passing
through the storage rooms it is returned by ducts to

Sok

oy

ee Sa:

Pe ny

ha

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 41

the coil room to be recooled and purified and to

begin the circuit anew.

There are many modifications in the details of
these systems when applied to storage houses, but as
this publication does not deal primarily with the
engineering side of refrigeration it is the purpose to
set forth approximately the fundamental principles
on which the most common storage systems are
based rather than to discuss their application or their
respective merits.

Extensive experiments in the cold storage of fruit,
especially apples, carried on by the United States
Department of Agriculture under the supervision of
Mr. G. Harold Powell, have added materially to our
knowledge of the subject in recent years. These
experiments have strongly emphasized the import-
ance of immediate storage. The fruit should be put
into the storage room with the least possible delay
after picking. Indeed, we know of one large apple
grower who has cooled refrigerator cars standing on
the railroad track waiting before picking begins.
Just as fast as the fruit can be sorted it is barreled
and hauled directly into these refrigerator cars.
These cars are run right into the refrigerating house
to be unloaded, so that the apnples are out of cold
storage for only a few hours at most, from the time
they are picked until they are sold.

It used to be thought that a temperature of 40 to
42 degrees was best for storing apples, but recent
experience has shown conclusively that the temper-
ature in the storage chamber should be 31 or 382
degrees, and that this should be maintained with
the least possible variation throughout the storage
season. 4

There is a diversity of custom with respect to put-
ting up the apples for storage. Usually they are
stored in barrels, but the reason for this is often that

a

42 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

the fruit handles more easily rather than that men
have any notion that the apples’ will keep better
when put up in that way. In fact, a good many fruit-
growers who practice home storage of apples habit-
ually store the fruit in bins. This is not the best
method . In fact, it may fairly be questioned whether
storage in bins is ever good practice. If fruit is to
be stored for a short time only it is better to have
it in a small package. If the package is open or
ventilated, so much the better. The cold air reaches
all parts of the receptacle and cools off all the fruit.
If apples are to remain some time in storage, how-
ever, it is better to have them in closed packages.
Probably the best that can be done is to have them
headed up in barrels. In open packages the fruit is
liable to be injured by wilting.

Wrapping of the fruit in papers as it is put into
the package nearly always helps it to Keep better. It
extends the life of apples in storage, under favorable
conditions, a month or more.

A word ought to be said in this connection with
regard to the scald. This is a malady which appears
badly on stored fruit sometimes, especially in certain
varieties, such as Rhode Island Greening. It seems
to show worse on fruit that is picked before it is well
colored and thoroughly ripe. A warm temperature
in the storage room also tends to promote the devel-
opment of the scald.

Peaches

It requires exceedingly nice judgment to know
just when to pick a peach for market. For eating
out of hand a peach should be picked early in the
morning, just about sunrise, of that day when it is so
ripe that it would fall to the ground if left till noon.
Unfortunately this good, though somewhat imprac-
ticable, rule cannot be applied in picking peaches for

—_—

a,

<

_ have to be agreed on in-each case. There is no recog-

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 43

_ market. Especially when peaches have to be shipped
_ a thousand miles or more, and must lie in the pack-
ages some ten days or two weeks between the orchard
_ and the table where they are eaten, it is manifestly

impossible to ripen them thoroughly on the trees.

The ideal, of course, is to leave them on the trees

just as long as possible, and still get them to the

consumer without prejudice. This means that the

nearer the market the riper the fruit may be allowed

to become, while the farther away is the market the
greener the fruit must be picked.

It is undeniable that mistakes are made every year

on both sides. Some fruit is picked too soft and
some is sent to market too green. The consumers,

at least, see more of the latter mistake, and it seems

5 to be fair to urge on shippers at the present day the

propriety of ripening their peaches better before
shipping. Nothing but long, and probably expens-

a -ive, experience can determine just what stage of ma-
turity is best. This varies also with different varieties

and with the weather. Some varieties, like Elberta,

can be allowed to ripen considerably further than
_ other softer varieties, like Carman. In hot, muggy

weather the fruit has to be picked greener to pre-
vent the svread of rot.

The fruit should be picked as early in the morn-
ing as possible. This is a good rule anywhere. It is

especially important for fruit which is to stand long
shipment.

The half-bushel basket with swinging handle is

a best for picking peaches. There is hardly any excep-
_ tion to this statement .

_ Peach pickers nearly always work by the day. If
the picking is to be done by the basket the price will

di FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

2}

Mi = -

:

Georgia Peach Carrier

nized price for this work, like there is for picking
strawberries in the strawberry sections.

There are several different packages regularly
used for peaches, but three types are much the most
common. These are as follows:

The Georgia carrier, or six-basket crate. This
crate holds six four-quart baskets. The baskets are
made of light veneer and are without handles. Three
of these side by side, cover the bottom of the light
Slat crate. A light slat staging is laid on top of the
three bottom baskets a3 soon as they are put in, and
three more basket’ go on top. The zover is then

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 45

nailed or stapled on, the crate is marked with the
name of the variety and grade, and the package is
ready for the car.

The Jersey basket. This is a slat basket made in
the form of the inverted frustum of a cone. In
other words, it is a round basket with a flat bottom,
wider at the ton than at the bottom. These baskets
are made in various sizes, from 8 quarts to 32 quarts.
The 16-quart size is probably the best, and is most
used. The baskets are sometimes covered with slat
covers, but oftener are simply covered over with

Jersey Peach Basket '

mosquito netting. Occasionally fancy peaches are
packed in 10-quart, 14-quart or 16-quart Jersey bas-
kets, and these are put up by twos in “‘pony”’ crates.
In some sections of the country, notably West Vir-
ginia, this package is rather popular. The writer
confesses himself unable to see anything really prac-

tical in it.

The Climax, or Michigan basket. This is the third
form of the peach basket. It closely resembles the

46 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

popular climax grape basket. It is made of veneer,
with a stiff handle. These are used in various sizes,
but the 8-lb. and the 10-lb. sizes are much the com-
monest. These baskets are sometimes covered with
slat tops, but oftener with mosquito netting. This —

package has the advantage of going direct to the con- i

sumer with the least possible trouble to him. It is a

more expensive package to handle than either of the
others.

Climax Peach Basket

Peaches are graded according to size and color.
All peaches of any basket should be of the same size,
and all first-grade peaches should be well colored.
Two or three grades are made, as the character of

the fruit may require or the fancy of the shipper
dictate.

The fruit is usually graded in a packing shed,
whither it is brought as fast as picked. In the shed
it should be poured out on narrow tables for sorting.
"hese ought to be padded to prevent bruising of the
fruit. If several packers are to work together
the tables should be divided into sections of conveni-
ent length. The tables usually slant toward the
packers, which helps to roll the fruit toward them,
and which also gives them a better view of the fruit.
Considerable skill is required to sort and pack

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 47

peaches rapidly and accurately, and well trained
packers receive good wages.

Nowadays, when peaches are to be shipped any
distance, they are usually forwarded in refrigerator
cars. This is especially the practice in Georgia,
Texas and California. Good refrigerator car service
is now almost a necessity to the peach business, and
has been the means of extending both the area of
peach growing and the period of consumption very
considerably.

Peaches may also be kept for a certain time in
cold storage. Powell’s experiments have shown that
firm, well-colored fruit will keep from two to three
weeks in a temperature of 32 degrees. It is possible
to keep peaches even longer than this under excep-
tionally favorable conditions, but for commercial pur-
poses even two weeks’ storage is hardly to be gen-
erally recommended. Storage will often help, how-
ever, to tide over a temporary glut in the market;
and such storage certainly furnishes a material addi-
tion to our equipment for handling the peach crop.

Plums

Plums ripen through a long season. This fact
presents a certain difficulty in picking and shipping
them. For home use plums should be allowed to
hang on the trees as long as possible. They should
be thoroughly ripe when picked. Even for shipping
to market certain varieties are frequently picked too
green. This is apt to be the case with the Damsons,
German Prune, Fellenberg and similar varieties,
which take on a heavy color long before they are
really mature. On the other hand, some varieties
are best picked for market at a period more or less in
advance of maturity. The Burbank plum is an ex-
ample. This variety can be picked a week before it
is ripe, and will then mature in a satisfactory condi-

48 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

tion in a storage house or in a package. This plan —
of picking before the plums are fully ripe may often
be resorted to with great advantage when plums are —

rctting badly. In this way a considerable portion of — .

the crop may often be saved from rot.

Plums should be vicked wth the stems on, wie
ever that is possible. Many varieties, however, do
not hold to the stems. In such cases the removal of

stems at picking time does no harm except that it 4

may injure the general appearance of the faced fruit
to a limited degree.

Plums should be picked in the early morning if ‘

possible, while they are cool, and should be trans-
ferred at once to storage or to a cool place. If they
are to be shipped to market they should be graded,
packed, and sent off as expeditiously as possible.

A good many growers make a great mistake by
not grading plums. It is customary with many fruit ©
men, who are otherwise careful with such things, to
send plums to market just as they come from the
tree. Now the plum is essentially fancy fruit, and
requires such special attentions as are always due a
fancy article. Plums should not only be graded, but
the best ones, at least when packed in small pack-
ages, should be carefully faced. In some cases it is
even best to wrap the individual! fruits in paper.

There is no standard package for plums. Hach
grower will choose his own vackage with reference
to the fruit he has to ship and the demands of his
market. The best California plums are usually sent
to market in a special square box of wood veneer
holding about two quarts. Many of the eastern
growers have found the common qduart box used for
strawberries to be the most satisfactory for plums.
The writer has used with much satisfaction the 3-lb.
bail-less grape basket. The 4-quart bail-less basket,

Spe
ro Q

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 49

such as is used in Georgia veach carriers, is also
-\ entirely satisfactory for shipping plums. These three
at packages last named may be conveniently crated in
% the ordinary strawberry crate, and this makes a con-
_ venient and good package for shipment. Other
y | .
bi ,packages which have been used for plums are the
RY
2
4a
os

' 5 and 10-lb. Climax grape basket with stiff handles;
_ diamond splint basket in various sizes, and the Jer-
sey peach basket, especially in the 8, 12, and 16-qt.
sizes. For a nearby retail market for plums of ordi-
"> nary quality the writer wrefers the 16-qt. Jersey
_ peach basket. For consignment to city markets, at
_ least in the eastern states, the best results are se-
eis cured with small packages, down to one quart,
Be packed in small crates. Packages holding one-half
San bushel or less seem to find the most favor.

bty} Plums are seldom held in cold storage; but in any
cease where a delay in marketing is desirable the ben-
efits of cold storage may be adopted. The length
of time which plums will keep in cold storage varies
greatly. If they are soft, over-ripe, and affected with
rot, it is hardly worth while to store them at all. On
the other hand, such varieties’as Fellenburg, Brad-
shaw, Grand Duke, etc., when in good condition,
would doubtless keen without serious deterioration
from one to two months in good storage.

We have never known of plums being shipped in
carlots to distant markets. We have seen Mr. Hale,
however, sending partial carloads in the same car
with peaches from his Georgia orchard to New York.
In such cases plums should be given the benefits of
the refrigerator car service, just as peaches are.

Quinces
_ Quinces should not be picked until they are ripe
and well colored. This direction seems so obvious
that one would hardly believe how often it is disre-

50 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

garded. Green, unripe quinces are about as unat- ze
tractive as anything that can be bought on a fruit BY
stand. In order to get the fruit in a suitable condi-
tion for selling, it is often necessary to pick over the
trees two or three times. Such extra pickings are
well worth while. if

When the fruit is picked, it is immediately sorted, —
packed, and sent to storage or market. Long storage ©
is seldom profitable, since the demand for quinces —
comes nearly all at the time of the quince harvest. —

The fruit should be very carefully graded since the —
market for quinces is always a fastidious one. Speci- —
mens which are at all bruised or soiled by fungus ~
should be discarded and the remaining specimens .
graded according to size. The discarded fruit is not
worthless, however. It makes excellent jelly, and —
is good even for preserving and canning. Of course, —
it will have to be sold at a lower price than first- —
grade fruit, but it will still bring a good revenue
and will not damage the sale of the first-grade stuff.

It has been practiced in past years to ship quinces ;
in apple barrels. Half barrels have sometimes been
used. Neither of these packages is satisfactory. Both —
should be discarded. Quinces should always be sold
in a small package. Twenty-pound baskets have
been used by some growers with considerable suc-
cess. The 16-qt. Jersey peach basket has been found
satisfactory, especially where long shipments were
not involved. In shipping any distance the bushel
box one of the best packages. It has always been
our experience further that it pays well to wrap
good quinces in paper. This fruit shows very badly
the effect of any bruise, and the paper largely pre-
vents bruising.

The quince has often proved to be one of the most
profitable fruits. The demand for it, however, is

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 51.

~wnecertain. No man should undertake to make his
fertune on quinces unless he is up to the tricks.

Pears

| , Pears are very often picked before they are thor-
aaa ripe. in fact, this is the customary way. It
a question whether this custom is well founded or
eo but nevertheless such has long been the prac-
etic Some late dessert var ieties may cou best

_ ing to storage with the expectation of ripening there
ne is not so defensible. The exnveriments carried on by
% _ Powell show that Kieffer may te picked during a
' considerable season, at least three weeks in Dela-

ae in any case ao eeu be handled very carefully
- and should be stored as soon as possible after
: _ picking.
The pear is essentially, and in most cases prac-
_ tically, a fancy fruit, and is to be handled as such.
_ The practice which was common a few years ago of
_ sending Bartlett, Duchess, Anjou, Sheldon, Winter
' Nelis, and similar varieties to market in apple bar-
~*~ rels is wrong. Fortunately during recent years it
4 has been largely discontinued. Pears have sometimes
_ been sent to market in baskets. The diamond splint
baskets have been used, also Climax baskets, and even
- more commonly the New Jersey peach basket. Such
' packages, however, are not logical ones for pears.
_ Although it has not been very extensively used, the
- bushel box is probably the best pear package under
_ ordinary circumstances. The fruit should be care-
fully packed in these, usually each specimen being
_ wrapped in paper. For fancy fruit half bushel boxes

52 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

sat —_— ee —

would be even better, although the market is not
accustomed to them.

Pears will keep for a considerable time in cold
storage. The length of practicable and profitable
storage of course depends very largely on conditions, —
especially on the quality and condition of the fruit
and upon the variety. Kieffer and Bartlett will keep
well until after Christmas in good storage. The best
temperature for holding nears seems to be 82
degrees.

The prices received for pears vary immensely.
They run from nothing at all up to $3 a dozen for
fancy fruit. Every one must have remarked that
eastern markets are never supplied with good dessert
pears. The bulk of the fruit stand trade is supplied
with California stock, which is never attractive to
eastern consumers. It is a rarity to see good home-
grown pears offered in any of the markets east of
the Rocky Mountains. On the face of it, this looks
as though there was a good opportunity to make
some money in pear culture. The men who have the
soil and climate adapted to it ought to try it.

Cherries

In California, and in a very few places in the
eastern states, sweet cherries are grown for market.
These: are handled in a manner quite different from
the methods employed with sour cherries.

These sweet cherries are always a dessert deli-
cacy. Frequently they are destined to be eaten out
of hand. It is expected, therefore, that they will be
sold in small quantities only. Thus they are put up
in small lots and in fancy packages, and every effort
is spent to make them look as attractive as possible.
They are for what is known as the fruit stand trade.

It is a curious fact worth noting that sweet cher-

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 53

ries are sold in essentially the same way on the con-
tinent of Europe. Whenever during the cherry sea-
son a train stops at almost any way station in France,
wy Switzerland or southern Germany, girls and women
. come crowding around with little baskets or paper
(aa filled with ripe sweet cherries. These are sold
} to the passengers on the train at prices usually about
equal to 15 or 20 cents a pound. The sweet cherries
- are sold in all the city markets of Germany, France
and Switzerland at retail in the same way. In the
handling of no other fruit are the markets of con-
_ tinental Europe and of North America so much alike
as in the selling of sweet cherries.
The California cherries, which are the commonest
— of the sweet cherries in our American markets, now
. usually come in small shallow wooden boxes holding
- three or four pounds. The cherries are nicely sorted
~ and are placed in these boxes in tiers and rows in
meexact geometrical order. Thjs gives them a very
showy appearance, especially when varieties of divers
- colors are worked together into some sort of pattern.
a" Sweet cherries from the eastern states are usually
' sent to market in quart strawberry boxes. While
: this is a good way, it is not so good as the California
_ method, and it is a question whether even the eastern
_ growers of sweet cherries would not fing the more
_ expensive packages and the more elaborate methods
of packing somewhat more profitable.
Sour cherries, like Morello, Richmond and Mont-
- morency, are more commonly grown in the eastern
_ states, the central states and in Canada. Still the
market for this luscious fruit is not by any means
halt supplied. The present practice is to send these
sour cherries to market in quart strawberry boxes

present conditions of under-supply prevail this
method is very good. It may be worth considering,

54 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

however, whether the use of Climax baskets in 5 or
even 8-lb. sizes would not please many customers.
The fact is that the best buyers of sour cherries want
them for canning or preserving, not for immediate
use as dessert. Such customers always want as
much as five or eight pounds, and for them the Cli-
max basket would be handier and more attractive
than the quart strawberry cup. If the time ever
comes when the supply catches up with the demand.
as nearly as it has in the marketing of apples, for
instance, we shall surely see perdevgl packages used
for sour cherries.

Stralvberries

Whenever I see a great public economist (general
manager to the government by his own appointment)
telling how to regulate the trusts, how to handle the
national currency, how to control all transportation
matters, and how to reform things generally, I
always think what fun it would be to see him trying
to run a gang of strawberry pickers. In many ways
it is harder to handle a large cron of strawberries
than it.is to run the government At any rate I am
convinced that some of the men who are in the
strawberry business are smarter than some of the
men who are in Congress.

One of the most serious problems in the straw-
berry business is that of securing a suitable force of
pickers. In the southern states growers naturally
depend largely on negro labor. In the northern
states women and children are looked to for the
principal help. Near factory towns such help is
usually most abundant, and such places are often
chosen on that account for commercial strawberry
growing. In some places Italian pickers are used;
in other places colonies of Polanders serve the end;

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 55

but always and everywhere one must foresée this
_ peculiar labor problem before he goes extensively
into the cultivation of strawberries.

Help of the kind here discussed is naturally and

\ a necessarily unsatisfactory. The wandering bands of
' negroes who follow the picking season from South

Carolina to New Jersey e seldom the best men and

women of their color.( In many towns it is the

Italians and Polanders who go about picking

in many pla

as soon as the strawberry pickers appear. }/ The

traw-

berries are (n less nomadic and irresponsible than
{

accepted rule that snecial policemen must be be on

~the negroes./ It has been found absolutely necessary
s to adopt the rule that no picker shall
be paid even a part of his or her wage until the end
of the picking season. )I a grower should be so kind-
hearted or crazy as pay his pickers on the first

. Saturday night of the season many of them would

immediately get drunk on the money and all of them
would move on to some other place, leaving him

ql without any pickers on Monday morning.

Intelligent girls of 16 to 60 years old are said
to make the best pickers, especially American or

i French girls. Some growers regard proper picking

of so much importance that they take special pains
to select only the best pickers. Usually such men
pay wages somewhat higher than the average, or
offer other inducements. One grower of my ac-
_ quaintance, besides paying good wages, gives a big
strawberry supper at the end of the season, at which
his pickers are his guests. These strawberry suppers
are said to be a howling success, and a picker would
work a month in the rain rather than miss the sea-
- son’s fete.

Picking is usually piece work, and pickers receive
_ from 1 to 2 cents a quart. The average is about 14%

buat ©.

56 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. 2
——————— ees OO “4 §
cents. In the south the pay is sometimes as low as
% 34 cents a quart.
wv Prion methods have been tried of keeping
«~~ acceunt of the pickers’ work, but the one now,almost
“universally adopted is the punch-card system. } Hach
picker is provided with a punch-card. When
a vicker has a certain number of baskets filled
with fruit he delivers them to the foreman, and
the foreman punches the picker’s card with the num-
\ ber picked. The picker keeps these cards till the day
‘' of settlement, in most cases, and the grower pays |
| what these punched cards call for. The great ad- ~
"vantage of this system is that it leaves the picker in ™
“sole charge of the evidence of his work, and thus
prevents any quarrels over the amount of fruit
picked.
A similar plan requires two of these cards, and
both are punched at one operation. Thus the picker
and the foreman each has a record.

Strawberries are almost always picked into the
quart baskets in which they are sold. In fields
where the fruit is sorted before being sent to market
this is still the practice, the quart baskets being the
most convenient receptacle for picking and measur-
ing the cron. When berries are sorted they are sim-
ply poured out of the boxes and sorted back into
them again.

It is customary and advisable to provide each
picker with a small tray holding six baskets of fruit.
This tray has a light bail and four short legs. Such ”

trays can be made for about 5 to 7 cents each, or can
be bought ready-made of dealers in fruit packages.

We have referred above to the sorting of the ~
fruit. Many growers practice this as a regular thing.
Probably a greater number do not. The question of
whether it will pay to sort or not must be settled by

a eee iy me a Miten'y
Eases

~

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 57

every grower for himself, and can be determined in
a given case only by test. If there is an accessible
market where an extra price can be secured for
a faney product, then grading the fruit will usually
pay. If there is not, then grading is almost certainly
- a waste of effort. It is a noteworthy fact, however,

_ that many of the best growers find that it pays
them well to grade their strawberries, putting the
_ best ones by themselves and facing up the baskets
_ in attractive fashion.

The Strawberry Package

_{ Strawberries are nearly always sold in quart))!
boxes, baskets or cus.) These are made of wood)
™ veneer or of paper. The waxed paper baskets are |
very attractive for a local trade, but do not ship so ~ af
_ well as strong wooden boxes. These quart boxes are

'_ made in four sizes, viz.: (1) “full quarts,” (2) ‘“‘stand-

ard quarts,” (3) ‘short quarts,” and (4) ee
quarts.’”’ It is rather a remarkable commentary on. a
the business that these terms, ‘short quarts’’ ae
“skin quarts,’ should be regularly used in the trade.,
The moral aspect of this question has often been dis-\
cussed, but we believe it has never been fully ascer-
tained whether the fruit-grower, the buyer or the
consumer will have to suffer for it in the hereafter.
Of the four sizes named the “standard quarts’’ are
in commonest use, though some markets and some
_ growers prefer the “short quarts.’’

; Pint boxes are sometimes used for very fancy
fruit or for long shipments. Fruit naturally carries
_ better the smaller the package. But the pint pack-
_ age for strawberries is a very small item in the trade
as a whole.

i The quart boxes are always shipped to market
in erates. Standard crates hold either 24, 32, 48 or

JRiva/fe

» \* and with the least possible hitch between grower and

58 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

60 quarts. The intermediate sizes are most in de-
mand. For fancy fruit or long shipments preference
is usually given to the smaller crates, though this
preference is not without exception. Some growers
of great experience say that the 60-qt. crate is best
‘for express shipping; and the reason given is that,
while an express messenger can throw a 24-qt.
crate half way across the platform, it requires two
men to lift a 60-qt. crate. The heavy package there-
fore gets the most careful handling.
Strawberries are largely shipped to commission
merchants, just as other fruits are consigned. The —
very perishable nature of the fruit, however, makes
this method risky, so that aS many growers as can
do so prefer to depend on private agents or to sell
' direct to some buyer. In the large strawberry cen-

ot \ters, like Ridgley, Md., or Oswego, N. Y., buyers
~ always appear in numbers and bid for the crop as it
" \is hauled to the railroad stations by the growers.
pe” Sometimes one method is best for the grower; some-

\\ times another is. It all depends. The only gener- é
y alization which can fairly be made is that this deli-
cate fruit should be handled as promptly as possible

consumer. For this reason direct retail sales must
always be the most satisfactory way of handling
strawberries; and the best growers will always seek —
this method of sale, or will come as near to it as
their curcumstances will allow.

The prices realized for the fruit vary immensely
—perhaps more than with any other kind of fruit.
Hothouse berries often bring $1 a quart—sometimes
twice or three times that much. The first berries
from Florida nearly always sell in northern markets
at 50 cents a quart and upwards. On the other hand,
growers in Maryland and Delaware at the rush sea-
son, are sometimes compelled to accept 3 to 5 cents

PACKING AND ho ae ela ana eoveeee 59

a quart, or even less. The usual retail price in-
. northern markets is 10 to 15 cents a quart, and grow-
. ers realize usually from 8 to 12 cents.

Bush Frutts

; Raspberries and blackberries are somewhat ex-
_tensively handled in our American markets, but

ag gooseberries and currants have nowhere nearly the

- comparative importance that they have in foreign

' markets. Raspberries and blackberries are usually _

- picked and handled much the same as strawberries. ™!*
They are almost always put up in quart boxes andpnph.
_ shipped in crates, exactly like strawberries. Fine red 4}
- raspberries, however, are more frequently packed in™™!

» small—say, 1-pint—boxes, at least in the east. In- inbp
- deed, this is a favorite way of handling them. Their»
_ fruit, being rather soft, handles better in the small

~ packages, and being rather high in price sells better

& in this way. Blackberries are never sold in these

¥ pint cups, so far as the writer knows.

The prices paid pickers for picking raspberries or
A blackberries are usually a trifle less than for picking
_ strawberries. They run from one-half cent to one
_ anda half.cents a quart. The pickers are managed
- in the same way, and the accounts kept in like man-
» ner, usually on a set of pvunch cards.

a ~Dewberries are handled in all ways like blackber-
- ries. In fact, when they reach the consumer they are
et blackberries. The retailers never call them dew-

_ Gooseberries, when sent to market at all, are
_ usually shipped in the same quart boxes, put up in
erates, just as strawberries are. There is a very small

60 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO.

sort, and allow them to ripen fully on the vines, they
are one of the favorite fruits in the markets.

Currants have a better standing in this country, —

a oer
Tea es
no a

being used largely for jelly, and even for dessert by b

some enterprising housewives. Currants, too, are
“usually marketed in quart boxes, and are therefore
usually shipped in crates like strawberries. Some-
times, however, they are shipped in 3-lb. or 5-lb.
Climax baskets with handles, such as are useq for
grapes. This is an excellent package, if the fruit is

firm enough to bear shipment without crushing. In ~

local markets currants are sold in all sorts of pack-
ages, and in fact are often dealt out in bulk without
any package at all. This method is not to be recom-
mended in any case. If the currants are worth sell-
ing they are worth handling well.

Grapes

There are a great many different kinds of grapes
grown in this country, but for commercial purposes
the Concord may be considered the type of them all,
and it also furnishes a large majority of the crop
annually sent to market. Grapes grown under glass

have to be handled very differently, but they are so

seldom grown and marketed in America that we may
fairly disregard them in this article.

In ripening the fruit, very different matters have
to be considered in different parts of the country, and
with different varieties. In the southwestern states
care has to be taken that the fruit is not cooked on
the vines, or not prematurely ripened by the exces-

sive hot sun. In the northern states every effort has —
to be made to secure all the sunlight and heat pos--

sible. In some cases grapes fail to ripen altogether
for lack of sufficient heat. Different varieties differ

greatly in this respect. Catawba, for example, re--

quires much more heat to ripen thoroughly than

\

ey |

PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 61

Delaware does. But any variety should be thor-
oughly ripened on the vines. Unripe grapes do not
ship nor keep any better than those fairly well
ripened, and they certainly are not so well received
by customers. One of the best ways of reducing the
demand for grapes is to send them to market green
and sour. In the northeastern states it is not uncom-
mon to allow the fruit to hang on the vines after the
leaves have fallen, thus securing ripe grapes when
earlier picking would yield only sour and unpala-
table fruit.

- The fruit is picked with small scissors or pruning
; shears made for the purpose. These should be both
small and strong. The scissors used for thinning out
bunches are not very good for picking. In the field
the grapes are picked into any convenient receptacle.
Usually the best thing is the half bushel picking bas-
_ket used for apples. In our own work we pick grapes
into large shallow trays which nest up one above
another, leaving a shallow air space between. These
trays are carried with the grapes in them into the
cooling room. The fruit remains in these trays from
one to ten days, until it is sorted and packed for
market. This method is used only on a compara-
_ tively small scale and for a local market.

_ Usually the baskets as picked in the field are de-
_livered promptly to the packing house. Here the
' fruit is spread out on a narrow table before the
_ sorters and packers (usually girls and women), by
whom it is picked over and packed. All decayed,
green and defective berries are cut out with sharp-
pointed scissors, and the bunches are deftly and

snugly stowed in the baskets.

_ he package which is almost universally used for
_ grapes is the Climax basket. These are made in
various sizes, the most popular being 3-Ib., 5-1lb., 8-1b.

62 FRUIT-GROWER, ST. JOSEPH, MO. f

and 10-lb. Of these the smaller sizes have the pref- —
rence. We have found 3-lb baskets without handles —
entirely satisfactory in the local market, but they
cannot be recommended for the general trade.
Good grapes, ripened without too much heat, yet
hanging on the vines till the beginning of cool
weather, can be stored almost as satisfactorily as
apples. Hundreds of tons are held in “common” and
“cold” storage every winter. In cold storage they
should have a temperature of 33 degrees. Houses
for common storage of grapes are made and operated
exactly like those for the common storage of apples.

~

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