No. 5. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 251 



mence to mellow. I think they will keep better and be of much 

 better quality. All the experiments that have been tried go to prove 

 this. 



We should so handle them that we may get them into our packages 

 without any bruises; in other words, handle them as though they 

 were eggs. There are some tender varieties that it will pay to use 

 gloves to pick them with. We ought never to use any package to 

 pick them in that is not rigid. One of the best is an oak-stave half- 

 bushel basket, with a swing handle, and a hook on the handle to 

 hang it on the ladder or on a limb. Apples should not be piled on 

 the ground, because the ground will cause them to sweat and ripen 

 up and we lose much of the keeping quality. A good way is to have 

 a sorting table in the orchard. One of the best tables has a canvass 

 top with no sharp corners to bruise the fruit. If we use a packing 

 house, then the apples should be drawn at once to the packing shed, 

 that we may pack them at once and get them into cold storage as 

 soon as possible. 



An experiment was tried in Adams county to determine the in- 

 fluence on the keeping qualities. Some were placed in cold storage 

 twelve hours after picking; some thirty-six hours, and some one 

 week after picking. It was found that the ones that only twelve 

 hours had elapsed between the picking and storing, kept much bet- 

 ter. The longer the time between picking and storing, the poorer 

 they kept. 



It looks as though all our fruit centers would have to have these 

 cold storage plants, and by all means make them co-operative. If 

 it pays companies to maintain cold storage, it will certainly pay 

 the grocers. We want to eliminate as many profits on our products 

 as possible. 



The kind of packages that are best depends largely on the markets 

 we cater to. If we seek a retail market, or the ultimate consumer, 

 then we should use the smaller package. The box or paper carton 

 would be best. The barrel seems to be the most logical package 

 for our Eastern apples, with the possible exception of some of the 

 tender varieties. 



The grading of our fruit has more to do with the value of a crop 

 than the package. We must learn to make all the fruit in a package 

 uniform in size and free from all blemishes. We, in Pennsylvania, 

 must get a little more honesty in our grading. Very little fruit in 

 Pennsylvania is properly graded. Too often they are faced up with 

 nice apples, and filled with culls. This condition exists not only in 

 Pennsylvania, but all through the East, and until we learn to pack 

 our fruit honestly and have them uniform all the way through the 

 package, we will have to take the skim milk prices, and the Western 

 grower will get the cream — not because they are not as high quality, 

 but because the Western apples are uniform in packing. These ap- 

 ples vary only one quarter to one-half inch in size, while a barrel of 

 Eastern apples runs from two and a half to four and a half inches in 

 size. The Western apples have a brand or stamp on them that 

 means just what it says, and a dealer never thinks of opening these 

 boxes to see how they run, but simply looks at those marks and can 

 guarantee them as marked. We, in the East, have failed in this, 

 and we must establish a brand or stamp and then stand behind them 



