THE MONTH I S I" I I Kl IN. 131 



so full that the covers must be put in place with a press. This is espe 

 cialiy detrimental to grapes, as it is almosl impossible to do this, with- 

 out breaking and mashing the fruit. In the case of apples and pears 

 the conditions are almost as bad. The fruit is .subjected to so much 

 pressure that nearly every specimen will show a slight bruise, which 

 not only injures its selling value, but if placed in storage will cause 

 decay far more quickly than if the fruit is perfectly sound. 



The standard grape crate contains four baskets which are generally 

 known as five-pound baskets and are intended to hold that amount. 

 The crates in which these baskets are placed vary in depth from four 

 to four and one-half inches, and as the baskets are but four inches in 

 depth, it is possible to till them considerably above the edges, and the 

 practice of doing this has grown until now a cleat eleven-sixteenths of 

 an inch in thickness is nailed to the end of the crate, making the four 

 and one-quarter-ineh crate measure a fraction under five inches; this 

 not being enough to satisfy some of the shippers and the trade, two 

 such cleats are often used ; not only is the crate so built up, but the 

 fruit is crowded in until it is necessary to ■"bow" the top in order to 

 get it in place. The result is. that a package intended to comfortably 

 contain twenty-five pounds is made to carry from twenty-eight to thirty 

 pounds and the fruit, instead of being carefully and lightly packed, is 

 crowded into the baskets and the top jammed down upon them, result- 

 ing in broken and split berries, with the elements of decay beginning 

 their work of destruction before the package is placed in the car. When 

 a shipper is approached on this subject he will tell you that grapes must 

 be packed in this way because the "trade demand it." Of course, the 

 trade demands it; they would demand a bushel if they thought they 

 could get it. Why should they not do so. if the packer is foolish enough 

 to give it? The retailer seldom sells grapes by the basket, but generally 

 takes tin' fruit out and sells it by the pound, and if he should sell by 

 the erate, he probably would do as I have seen San Francisco retailers 

 do with berries in small baskets — shake and loosen up the fruit by 

 placing the hand over the basket, inverting it, and then sweeping off 

 all berries above the edge, from which several additional baskets 

 were tilled. If all crates contained a maximum amount of, say twenty- 

 tive pounds, the dealer would know exactly what he was getting for his 

 money and would buy accordingly, knowing that his competitor was 

 getting no more than he. The fruit is worth so much per pound and 

 should be bought on that basis, which is the only way fair alike to 

 grower and dealer. 



This is a subject that is deemed of such vital importance to the indus- 

 try that an attempt will be made at the present session of the legislature 

 to go amend or to add to the standardization law as to cover this point 

 in such way as to be generally acceptable. 



The situation is nearly as bad with apples and pears. I have here- 

 tofore written of my experience when acting as one of the jury of 



awards in the live-box appli otest for the sweepstake prize at the 



Panama-Pacific Exposition last year. It was found at that time that 

 as high as sixty per cent of the apples iii some of the boxes examined 

 had been mechanically bruised; in other words, these beautiful apples, 

 probably the finest grown in the world, produced on the highest-priced 

 land, cultivated regardless of expense; pruned, sprayed and fertilized 



