BETTER FRUIT 



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



The Physical Handling of Fruit 



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



MOST fruit growers of the Pacific 

 Nortliwcst arc now familiar with 

 the fact that the Ollice of Mar- 

 kets of the I'nited States Department of 

 Agriculture spent much time studying 

 our fruit marketing situation in the 

 Northwest, and finalh suggested to the 

 growers that they form what has been 

 termed the Fruit drowers' Agency, In- 

 corporated. It is not my purpose to 

 deal with the entire function of this 

 new agency, but more to confine myself 

 to its relation to the physical handling 

 of fruit in the Pacific Northwest. This 

 function of the Fruit (irowcrs' Agency, 

 Incorporated, is well defined in what is 

 known as the uniform contract. In this 

 uniform contract, under Heading 2, Sec- 

 tion b, we find the following: "(b). To 

 work in close harmony with growers 

 with the aim of securing uniform meth- 

 ods in the harvesting, grading, ])acking, 

 and the physical handling of the fruit 

 from tree to car; and to secure a stan- 

 dardization and enforcement of the 

 grading and inspection rules of the 

 States of Oregon, Washington, Idaho 

 and Montana." Also under Heading (g), 

 No. 2, we note the following paragraph: 

 "To see that the fruit is prepared for 

 market so that the grade and pack may 

 be in accordance with the best trade 

 demands." 



The reader will see at a glance that 

 these two clauses indicate that a vigor- 

 ous campaign is to be waged in the 

 Pacific Northwest to improve the phys- 

 ical handling of our fruit. In Oregon, 

 the Oregon Agricultural College, thru 

 its Bureau of Markets, is co-operating 

 very closely with the Ciovernment in 

 the general program, and the Division 

 of Horticulture is giving aid in the 

 ph>sical handling of fi'uit. 



In addition to the work which the 

 Ollice of Markets and the vaiious Agri- 

 cultural Colleges in the Northwest are 

 doing to foster this movement, other 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture agencies are aiding the growers at 

 this time verv materially. 1 refer esijc- 

 cially to the investigators conneclid 

 with the Odice of Pomological Investi- 

 gations, who are con<lucting in the 

 Noi-thwest investigations on the pre- 

 cooling and storage of fruit, the con- 

 struction of packing houses and storage 

 plants, etc. These men arc ever ready 

 to co-operate with the growers in giv- 

 ing assistance along such lines. The 

 Oflice of Markets has nf)t confined its 

 energies to the mere organization of 

 such an agency, but it has placed lumi- 

 erous men in the field to heli) cany out 

 the various provisions of the "uniform 

 contract." Along the lines of physical 

 handling, il is interesting to know that 



men are at work in the Pacific North- 

 west studying our methods of packing 

 and transportation. A special study is 

 being made of community packing 

 houses, and their general efliciency, as 

 comi)ared with small houses conducted 

 by independent growers. 



Never in the history of Northwest 

 fruit growing has so much attention 

 been given to the problems of organiza- 

 tion and of marketing our fruit. Never 

 before has our national government 

 lent us so much aid. Not only the 

 national government and the agricul- 

 tural colleges, but our business men are 

 backing this movement. It is gratifying 

 to note that our substantial business 

 men and bankers at last realize that 

 much attention must be given to our 

 two -hundred -million -dollar api)le in- 

 dustry, and feel that they must assist in 

 marketing so that we may realize the 

 greatest profit from the industry. 



It is very important that we give this 

 subject of physical handling a very 

 close study. It is true that the North- 

 west has perhaps made more progress 

 in the giading and packing of fruit than 

 any other section of the world. We 

 have become famous because of the 

 quality of our pack, but perhaps this 

 reputation in a way is beginning to hurt 

 us. We are resting on our oars. Manx' 

 of us do not realize the terrific loss thai 

 our growers are sustaining because our 

 methods are not what they might be. 

 We have only started in this gieat 

 work; we are beginning to leaiMi that 



our fruit must be moved much more 

 rapidly than formerly; that we must 

 make a supreme elfort to get this fruit 

 from the tree to the cold storage plant 

 in the shortest possible lime; that un- 

 necessary delay means that we will 

 suffer enoimous losses. We are just 

 beginning to realize that we have been 

 wasting too much money; that we are 

 on the threshold of a period where 

 more waste will be the result unless 

 we study this ([uestion more in detail. 

 We are about to spend millions of dol- 

 lars in the erection of packing houses 

 and storage plants, and before this 

 money is spent we should analyze the 

 situation carefully. We have passed 

 through our period of development; we 

 are now reaching a ])erio(l of organiza- 

 tion, not a mere selling organization, 

 but an organization of standardization 

 of methods of physical handling. We 

 can learn a great deal from each other, 

 and by co-operation can do much to 

 improve the condition of our fruit, as 

 far as its arrival at the point of con- 

 sumption is concerned. We must main- 

 tain finish in our fiuit. We in the West 

 are favored because of the superb color 

 and quality of our fruit. Our growers 

 have demonstrated that this can be 

 fairly easily abtained. We have not 

 demonstrated, however, that we can 

 always put this fiuit in the hands of the 

 consumer with the same degree of fin- 

 ish. While we are putting lots of it 

 there with finish, a very large percent- 

 age is arriving at the market in poor 



I'lf.iBK 1 — PiickiiiK scetu' ill Iidusc in Iliiori River. Shows ilicap coiustruclion 

 and Rnod HkIiI. Till' fillil is jilacod on si/ci- al upjier end of room. 



