j.5-t Report of Farmers' Institutes 



CENTRAL PACKING HOUSES FOR NEW YORK FRUIT 



F. S. Welsh 



Agriculturist, Xew York Central Railroad, Xew York City 



The enactment of the New York Apple Grading Law has raised 

 a question in the minds of many growers as to whether it might 

 not be desirable to use central packing houses in packing fruit 

 in order to comply with the requirements of the law. With a 

 view to obtaining information that might bear on this question, 

 the writer has collected data as to methods of operation of central 

 packing houses as they exist in the eastern part of the United 

 State and especially in Canada, where apples are packed in 

 barrels under a compulsory apple packing law similar in many 

 respects to the New York law. 



It was not thought that all of the methods employed would 

 prove practicable under New York conditions, but it seemed that 

 where there was a great similarity in methods of production 

 and in the kinds of packages used, the same principles should 

 apply in New York State as in the other sections, and that at any 

 rate, since these sections were competitors of New York State, 

 it might be desirable for New York growers to know what their 

 competitors were doing, and planning to do, in the important 

 matter of packing and marketing their crop. 



The Canadian apple packing law antedates the New York 

 law by several years, and has now been in operation long enough 

 to produce results. Two veiy apparent developments have fol- 

 lowed the enforcement of this law: First, orchard packing has 

 decreased and a great many central packing houses have been 

 put in operation, and, secondly, .the quantity of Canadian apples 

 exported has increased very rapidly in proportion to the total 

 crop. The second development, Canadians believe, is caused to a 

 large extent by the first. 



WHY THE CENTRAL PACKING HOUSE CAME INTO BEING 



The reason for the establishment of central packing houses 

 was a general dissatisfaction with methods of orchard packing, 



