fage 8 



BETTER FRUIT 



November^ 1921 



the packing and storage rooms are usually 

 parts of the same building, the same mat- 

 erial is ordinarily used in the construction 

 of each unit, although the storage room is 

 insulated, and the packing room is not. 

 Where the cost of excavating is high or 

 where water is encountered in excavating, 

 it is more economical and satisfactory to 

 build a house without a basement. In the 

 past, one-story houses have been more pop- 

 ular because the fruit could be handled 

 more economically on one floor. It is, 

 however, more expensive to construct a 

 one-story house with a given floor space 

 than to construct a two-story house with 

 the same floor area, and in recent years 

 the development of efficient mechanical 

 conveyors has made it possible to elevate 

 the fruit to an upper floor at a very low 

 cost. In a two-story pacicing house built 

 without a basement, one end of the 

 upper floor should be used for packing 

 operations, as it may be lighted from three 

 sides. The remaining space may be block- 

 ed off by the use of an insulated divided 

 partition and used for the storage of loose 

 fruit. The ground floor is used for assem- 

 bling and storing the packed fruit. To pro- 

 vide a clear floor space in the packing room 

 the roof should be carried upon trusses. It 

 is frequently desirable to provide covered 

 platforms for receiving the loose fruit and 

 loading out the packed fruit. Where these 

 are used, the house should be so arranged 

 that the packing room will not be cut off 

 from the light. 



It is impossible to determine, with ac- 

 curacy, the size of a house to build to ac- 

 commodate a given tonnage. Under the 

 conditions which have prevailed in recent 

 years, the transportation companies have 

 been unable to provide a regular supply of 

 cars, and a house designed to ship several 

 cars a day may not receive any for several 

 days; so it is necessary to provide an amount 

 of storage space which, under other cir- 

 cumstances, might be considered excessive. 

 A house built on a railway spur and de- 

 signed to provide a large number of load- 

 ing-out doors together with abundant pack- 

 ing facilities has proved most desirable, 

 especially in some districts where, duririg 

 the early fall, a large number of refriger- 

 ator cars have usually been held on the side- 

 tracks and in the railroad yards waiting 

 loading. 



A Truck Loaded With 315 Packed Boxes of 

 Apples 



For the first few weeks of the shipping 

 season, the railroads are able to meet all 

 demands for cars, and of course they want 

 to have this equipment loaded and in ser- 

 vice. Houses constructed with these con- 

 ditions in mind have been able to take 

 advantage of the abundant supply early in 

 the season. Other houses which control 

 an equal amount of tonnage, but with 

 limited packing facilities and relatively 

 few loading-out doors, have been forced to 

 ship later in the season when cars were 

 scarce and often during severe winter 

 weather when large losses were suffered. 



THE most important feature in the con- 

 struction of the packing houses, but 

 the most commonly neglected, is the ar- 

 rangement for proper lighting. The most 

 efficient work is possible only when the 

 room is properly illuminated at all times. 

 Most people understand that dim lighting 

 interferes with the accuracy and efficiency 

 of grading operations, but comparatively 

 few realize the glare of a direct light is 

 equally bad. To avoid the latter condition, 

 architects have sometimes advised the use 

 of north and east windows, and if enough 

 windows are used, such light is satisfactory 

 during the middle of the day, but not in- 

 tense enough for early mornings or late 

 afternoons or for dull days during the late 

 fall and winter. 



Houses constructed to admit light 

 through a narrow lantern or penthouse 

 roof extending the length of the packing 

 room are very common in some districts. 

 This light usually is supplemented by a 

 few low and rather small windows placed 

 along the side and end walls, but such a 

 method is very unsatisfactory and should 

 not be allowed in future construction. 



Hipped-roof skylights and high win- 

 dows in sufficient numbers to light the in- 

 terior thor6ighly are the most satisfactory 

 method of lighting. The hipped-roof sky- 

 light is preferable to a straight plain glass, 

 as the style of construction permits it to 

 receive some light throughout the day. The 

 side windows should be placed 5 feet up 

 the wall so that the light will not be block- 

 ed by the machines, conveyors, or stacked 

 boxes, but will flood unobstructed to the 

 center of the room. To light a packing 

 room 100 feet long by 70 feet wide will 

 require the use of continuous sash 4- feet 

 high along the two sides and one end. A 

 room 40 feet by 60 feet will require 

 continuous sash of the same height along 

 two sides only. 



Wiiere sizing machines are used, the 

 sorting table is usually placed next to the 

 partition between the packing room and the 

 loose fruit storage, so that the sorters re- 

 ceive very little light from the windows 

 at the opposite end of the room. To in- 

 crease the amount of illumination at this 

 point hipped-roof sky lights should be 

 installed over each sorting table. These 

 skylights should be made of translucent 

 glass to diminish the glare of the sun on 



bright days. They need not be larger 

 than 3 feet by 4 feet in size. Where the 

 house is constructed with a loft, light 

 shafts or wells are used to admit the light 

 and concentrate it directly over the sort- 

 ing table. These shafts should flare so 

 that at the bottom, which is directly over 

 the heads of the sorters, the dimensions 

 are the same as those of the sorting 

 table. When hand tables are arranged 

 down the center of a large packing 

 room, a large hipped-roof skylight should 

 be placed above to insure plenty of light 

 for the graders. White paint is commonly 

 applied to the light shafts and other parts 

 of the packing room to intensify and re-, 

 fleet whatever light is available. fl 



It is necessary to provide electric lights 

 for use at night and on very dark days. 

 The packing operations which can be con- 

 ducted efficiently in a rather dim light 

 can be illuminated by globes suspended by 

 drop cords, but such provision is not sat- 

 isfactory for the sorting table. For this 

 purpose a rectangular-shaped reflector or 

 hood, should be used. This reflector should 

 be the same length as the table and about 

 1 8 inches wide. It should be suspended 

 by ropes and equipped with a pulley so 

 that it may be drawn up and away from 

 the table when natural light is available. 

 Such a reflector protects the eyes from all 

 glare and also enables the sorting crew to 

 concentrate their attention better on their 

 work as a view of the workers on the op- 

 pisite side of the table is obstructed. This 

 reflector should be furnished with six 75- 

 watt blue glass daylight nitrogen electric 

 globes. The light from such globes is not 

 glaring and is the best substitute for sun- 

 light in examining defects and color. 



In former years the apples, both loose 

 and packed, were hauled in wagons, but 

 motor trucks have replaced them to a very 

 large extent. It is probable that the cost 

 of this operation has not been lowered mat- 

 erially by the change, but the time and 

 labor have been reduced, and both of these 

 factors are exceedingly important during 

 the packing season. As a general thing, in- 

 dividual growers can not afi"ord to main- 

 tain trucks to be used only for a compar- 

 atively short season, and for that reason, 

 they, and often the dealers and growers' 

 associations as well, find it more convenient 

 and economical to contract for this work. 



See Us 



At the Seattle Fruit Show 



November 21-26 



One of our Graders will be working 



Cutler Mfg. Co. 



353 E. Tenth St. Portland, Oregon 



