134 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THE CALIFORNIA FRESH 

 FRUIT STANDARDIZATION LAW WITH DECIDUOUS 

 FRUITS. 



By H. E. Butleb, Penryn, Cal. 



The California Fresh Fruit Standardization Law lias been in oper- 

 ation a year. Its practical application with deciduous fruits has had 

 its first test. 



This law regulates the packing of peaches, plums, pears, cherries, 

 apricote, grapes, cantaloupes, and berries, for export from the state. 

 Its fundamental principles are uniformity of size, quality and maturity 

 throughout the box or package, and the proper marking to correctly 

 designate contents. It was drafted with the idea of creating an honest 

 and dependable pack. Its enforcement is delegated to the County Hor- 

 ticultural Commissioners, who must appoint deputies to act as inspectors. 



Fresh deciduous fruit shipments, of the kinds specified in this act, 

 amounted to about 20,000 carloads this year, from shipping points 

 usually grouped into districts as follows: 



American River Sacramento River Fresno 



Placer County El Dorado Visalia 



San Joaquin Shasta Imperial Valley 



Vaca Valley San Jose 



During this first year most of these districts were supplied with the 

 necessary equipment for applying the law. Practical tests have been 

 made. 



At the outset, it should be known and remembered that practically 

 all of the fresh fruit covered by this law is packed in the orchards by 

 the growers themselves, and seldom in central packing houses, except 

 grapes. It comes from a thousand and one orchard packing sheds, 

 where equipment varies from nil to perfect, and packers from new 

 settlers to experts. In a great many instances packers are the families 

 of the growers themselves. 



The chief defects sought to be remedied, and to which, in the applica- 

 tion of the law, the inspectors probably paid first attention, are as 

 follows : 



First. 



Topping. 'Phis, in berries, has been nothing short of scandalous in 

 the past, and is a fault most frequently complained of by Eastern 

 buyers, in many kinds of our fruit. 



Second. 



Irregular sizt and maturity. Certain trade calls for small sizes, others 

 large, in these fruits, as in oranges. Mixing solid and over-ripe fruit. 

 in the same package, causes much of the heavy wastage the retailers 

 suffer, and enters very largely into their demand for an apparently 

 wide margin of profit. 



Third. 



Pest infection. This results in condemnation of whole shipments, in 

 states having quarantine laws. 



