394 , State Horticultural Society. 



GRADING AND PACKING PEACHES FOR MARKET. 



(By Prof. W. G. Johnson.) 



It is surprising how few fruit growers make necessary preparations 

 in advance for handUng their crops in the best possible way. Last June, 

 when visiting the peach orchards of the Blue Ridge and Alleghany moun- 

 tains, I estimated that a certain company would have between 60,000 

 and 70,000 bushels peaches. So far as could be seen no special prepara- 

 tions were being made to take care of this crop, which was an unusually 

 large one. When the same orchard was visited again the latter part 

 of August the packers were at work. There was no special organization. 

 Some of the packers were sitting on the floor, while others w'ere more 

 comfortably seated on basket or box. The picture tells the whole story, 

 and is well worth careful study. Several thousand bushels of as fine 

 peaches as I ever saw were lost in this orchard owing to lack of syste- 

 matic organization. 



In striking contract wath this system, I saw some well-organized ■ 

 packing sheds in the same neighborhood where every bushel of fruit 

 was saved. In Georgia and Michigan the same careless indifference 

 was seen in many orchards. On the other hand, in some orchards the 

 fruit was handled in the most careful manner. In the orchards of J. 

 H. Hale, the fruit is sorted into three grades and placed in long canvas 

 trays arranged in compartments in front of the worker, about one foot 

 above the center of the table, with the packers on the opposite side. 

 The peaches are classified into three grades and then packed into car- 

 riers of six baskets each. About 100 peaches of extra large size are 

 packed in a carrier. The No. i size usually requires from 120 to 150, 

 while No. 2 takes from 190 to 210. Peaches below this size are as a rule 

 not placed in carriers. 



The fruit is carefully graded by experts, many of them being orange 

 packers from Florida. Every peach must be up to standard size, with- 

 out blemish and in perfect stage of ripeness before being placed in a 

 basket. The general foreman of the packing shed keeps a very careful 

 watch over all the fruit packed, and before the lid is nailed on a crate 

 an expert makes a final inspection, being sure that every peach is up to 

 standard. If a single peach is found containing a bruise or blemish 

 of any kind, the entire crate is returned to the packer and as a penalty 

 must be repacked! The fruit is handled mostly by white men and wo- 

 men, and expert packers can put up from 80 to 100 carriers per day, the 



