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NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



of it all the time but it is impossible to fool all of it all the time. 

 Making poor grades is like firing a rusty gun. It will recoil, and to the 

 grief of the producers as a whole. Not only the man who sells the 

 poor stock will suffer but his neighbors as well. The man who insists 

 on putting out poor grades can only be forced into line or forced out 

 of business by a united effort on the part of the more progressive fruit 

 growers to raise the standard of excellence, in packing and grading, 

 so high that in order to compete at all fruit must be properly cared for 

 and handled. At the present time this stand^^ard is not high enough 

 and the lines are not closely enough drawn. 



OLD STYLE GRADING TABLES ENCOURAGES POOR GRADING. 



The slant table where the apples are poured in at one end and 

 rolled down the incline by sorters who worked on either side encour- 

 ages slovenly grading. As a rule the grade which forms the highest 

 per cent of the crop is rolled down to the low end of the table and on 

 into barrels. They are kept from dropping too far and are supposed 



Slant table in use. 

 to be kept from bruising by being dropped onto a canvas apron which 

 is gradually lowered as the apples pile up. This does not prevent 

 bruising. An apple will bruise quicker by striking another apple 

 than by striking a board. Only the grades which run a smaller per 

 cent of the crop are handled. Some tables are partitioned in the 

 middle and run two grades into barrels. In this way many defective 

 apples escape notice no matter how careful the sorters may be. An 

 apple will start rolling down the incline, the sorter sees one side only, 

 it gets to the man filling the barrel, and unless the defect is large and 

 stares him directly in the face, he also passes it on, and another 

 wormy apple has gone into the barrel. This, added to the bruiaing, 

 should be sufficient cause for discarding the slant tables. The only 



