BETTER FRUIT 



AN ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE PUBLISHED MONTHLY IN THE INTEREST OF MODERN, PROGRESSIVE FRUIT GROWING AND MARKETING 



Physical Handling of Fruit— Fruit Grades 



By C. I. Lewis, Professor of Horticulture, Corvallis, Oregon 



(Continued from last issue.) 

 HNERALLY speaking, thi 



fruit 

 liavt' 



Gl 

 ijroweis of tht- Xorthwest 

 iitloptc'il three gfudes. These air 

 termed Extia Fancy. Fanc> and Choice. 

 Occasionally a fourth grade Ivnown as 

 "cookers," which is sold locally, is han- 

 dled, and sometimes a special grade 

 which would handle for fancy fruits 

 which are otherwise perfect except for 

 a little scab or a few hail marks. The 

 tendency in this country, however, is to 

 do away with the words denoting 

 grades, and substitute therefor certain 

 brands; such, for examijle, as the Blue 

 Triangle as the best brand, Red Tri- 

 angle as the second brand, the third 

 grade generally being simply marked C. 

 Experience seems to teach that this is 

 pretty good practice. ^Ye have still, 

 however, a big problem in determining 

 the method of jiacking and handling 

 our third grade fruit; in determining 

 whether or not our system could be 

 changed to advantage, or whether or 

 not a dirt'erent package than the regu- 

 lation box could protitably be used. 



A great deal of hard work has been 

 done in the Xorthwest in the past few 

 years in attempting to establish grading 

 rules which will be accepted by all the 

 connminities. The problem has become 

 greatlj com|)licate(l, however, because 

 there are about twenty varieties of 

 apples conniiercially grown, and these 

 grow to a dilferent degree of perfection 

 under various climatic conditions found 

 in our region. It seems very desirable, 

 however, that serious attempts be made 

 to .standardize the grades, and to see if 

 it is not possible for the various fruit 

 sections to come to a little clearer 

 understanding on this subject. We all 

 realize ver>- keenly that we must abso- 

 lutely maintain our standard or else go 

 out of the apple business. The minute 

 the Pacific Xorthwest lets down on its 

 grading, troubles will begin to accunni- 

 late, and complications such as we have 

 never exi)erienced are to be expected. 

 It may be found that with some varieties 

 certain exceptions may be allowed. As 

 an example we might come to an under- 

 standing as to the amount of scab to be 

 allowed in a second grade pack of Yel- 

 low Xewtowns. Shall we allow some 

 scab or must such fruit be put up as a 

 special pack? The consumers' tastes 

 and desires on this subject should be 

 worthy of consideration, and if the 

 market will take a certain kind of fruit 

 packed in a certain wa>- and pay the 

 Pfjce, and prefer it over the same varie- 

 ties grown in other ])nrts of the counlrx , 

 such a classification or gradingcerlainl\ 

 must be generaly acceptable. For ex- 

 ample, the English market, which con- 



sumes the greater jiart of our Xewtown 

 crop, should deteiniine to a large degree 

 the grade and pack of that variety. 



The Fruit Growers" Agenc>-, Incor- 

 porated, is making a serious effort to 

 help the growers of the Xorthwest in 

 the grading of the fruit. A committee 

 on physical handling of fruit has been 

 ajjpointed, which is as follows: S. Y. 

 Beckwith, Medford, Oregon; C.E.Chase, 

 \Yalla ^Yalla, \Vashing'ton; Charles L. 

 Hamilton, Xorth Yakima, ^Yashington; 

 Sam G. Campbell, Hood Hiver, Oregon. 

 .\dvisory members: Prof. C. I. Lewis, 

 Corvallis, Oregon; Prof. C. C. Yincent, 

 Moscow, Idaho; Prof. O. M. Morris, Pull- 

 man, ^Yashington; Prof. M. L. Dean, 

 Missoula, Montana. All members of this 

 committee will be delighted to hear 

 from shipijers, growers and packers of 

 fruit concerning ideas as to improve- 

 ments that could be maile in the grading 

 of our fruit. Whatever rules of grading 

 are adopted must be practical working 

 rules, which can be lived up to. It 

 must be borne in miml that the buyer 

 is going to hold the grower up to the 

 grades he himself has adopted, and that 

 if the Xorthwest adopts certain rules 

 and regulations concerning the grading 

 of fruit, the large buyers all over the 

 world are going to reject or accept our 

 fruit on the basis of our own advertised 

 grading rules. 



Xo system of grading which we may 

 adopt will reallx- be worth ver>- mucji 

 without a very cllicient system of in- 



spection. So far the states are acting 

 separately along such lines. Some .seem 

 to have fairly good laws, and others not 

 very good. Most of our money at i)rcs- 

 ent is spent in inspecting orchards, in- 

 sjiecting the fruit which is sold in our 

 local markets, and in watching very 

 carefully the interstate shipments of 

 nursery stock and fruit which is to be 

 handled for local consumption. All 

 horticulturists realize that this is good 

 work, but we are also beginning to 

 lealize that it needs to be greatly ex- 

 ten<led, and after all, as far as the hor- 

 ticulturists themselves are concerned, 

 the success of the business and the 

 greater aid will come from the inspec- 

 tion of the fruit shipped out of the state 

 to the world's markets. If we can stan- 

 dardize the carloads of fruit shipijed 

 out it will do more to help the horticul- 

 tural industry of the Pacific Coast than 

 an\- other single factor. To inaugui-ate 

 a system of inspection of this kind, 

 however, means ver\- close organization 

 and considerable money. .lust how this 

 can be accomplished or what the ma- 

 chinery for handling such inspection 

 will be are questions upon which the 

 growers have not \ et expressed their 

 opinions. Some of the states of the East 

 are passing laws to cover this subject. 

 There are also national laws for barrel 

 grading. California has made wonder- 

 ful ijrogress in the past year in the 

 enactment of two laws. The first has 

 to do with the standardization of fruit 



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 is also making the best of advertising possiljilities. 



