178 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



meetings a few suggestionfi, together with the discussion which usually fol- 

 lows, may do some good, and all profit more or less from an exchange of ideas. 

 First, I will lay down a few principles which I know are right as well as profit- 

 able and should be stamped indelibly on the brain of every fruit grower. 

 First, use nothing but a well made standard package ; if a barrel, get the full, 

 legal size; if a quart or pint case, see that it is full-size ; if a peach package, 

 it is more difficult. The bushel and half-bushel basket are very good pack- 

 ages, if properly made, but as they are made with the sharp-edged rims, rough 

 projections and nails poorly clinched, they are hardly fit to pick up corn in, 

 let alone a lot of choice peaches, which in twenty-four hours will have an 

 outside layer of bruised, cut and rotting trash which will cost you more than 

 you can afford. If you do use them they should be lined with some very 

 heavy brown paper or light cardboard, to protect the fruit. It will pay. 

 Probably the best small package is a full peck Climax handled basket, made 

 with open-work sides and slatted rest cover, dispensing with the deceptive 

 tarletan, which, if not a fraud, certainly comes very near it. Another very 

 desirable package, just now, is the lath box, holding a peck ; nail two of them 

 together. Did you notice last summer how the Kentucky and southern Indi- 

 ana growers skimmed the cream off the peach market with this package and 

 some good, straight-packed fruit? If this package is not demoralized by this 

 suicidal stuffing process, it can be placed on the m^irket, with good fruit in it, 

 to advantage. Buyers have come to look for a certain style of package from 

 certain localities, and in passing along the street will inspect or pass by fruit 

 accordingly. Bat one thing we should insist on. The manufacturer should 

 give us a smoother package inside, and when we fill it we should be careful 

 to fill it just as we should want to buy it. 



If we are packing apples we all know how to pack an honest barrel, and if 

 we don't do it we should be prosecuted in the interest of the swindled people. 

 If we are packing berries, the case becomes more difficult, as pickers do not 

 average very careful and some are not honest. Consequently there is no 

 safety short of rehandling the fruit in the packing sheds, which is best done 

 by smart girls, who should be able to pack properly at a cost not exceeding 

 ten cents per case of sixteen quarts. Then you know your reputation will 

 not sutler. Some will say that tender fruit, like the red raspberry, can not 

 be rehandled in this manner. To such I will say that it has been done for 

 years by several growers. I believe the first man to make a success of it was 

 Parker Earle, whose good sound sense has been the means of leading a great 

 many fruit growers into advanced and more profitable methods. In order to 

 rehandle successfully, a few picking directions are needed. Red raspberries 

 should be picked, in ordinary ripening weather, every second day; in very hot 

 or showery weather, or the last of the crop, they may need picking every day. 

 Strawberries should be picked as soon as fully colored, and it is best to make 

 two grades if the fruit is choice. Blackberries are variable in ripening. The 

 Wilson or Early Harvest should not be picked oftener than every third day, 

 as, while they will color well in ordinary weather in two days, they will nearly 

 doubli in size in the next twenty-four hours, while the Snyder only requires 

 two days. The time can be varied, either way, one day, if the weather is 

 very hot or very cool. If these conditions are complied with, there is no 

 trouble in the operation. If heavy rains should interfere, the ripe fruit will 

 be poor anyway, so we consider it best to put on all the help we can and pick 

 and ship without packing, using a numbered stencil; but, for the sake of 



