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the intending purchaser, when the box is opened, has to be seen but once 

 to impress anyone with the unwisdom, the shortsightedness of this style of 

 work. The ragged, untidy, make-shift appearance, the evident lack of 

 skill, the danger that dishonest intention be imputed, are some of the un- 

 fortunate consequences. The filling known as "Excelsior" is in this re- 

 gard made to cover a multitude of sins, and for this reason, if for no other, 

 its use should be discouraged. Especially is excelsior superfluous when 

 the fruit is wrapped, as then it is not required to serve its only useful pur- 

 pose, namely, to prevent the fruit from bruising. Yet by several of our 

 packers excelsior was used to fill up the slack between the top layer of 

 peaches and pears and the lid; whereas, with a proper selection of size of 

 specimens and ordinary care and skill in packing, there should have been 

 no slack. With excelsior at the bottom of the box, and excelsior at the 

 top, and excelsior sticking out at the crevices and forming a ragged edge 

 all around, the appearance of some of our peach boxes compared very un- 

 favorably with the neat and tidy Californian boxes in the same warehouse, 

 and, it is only just to say, with other boxes sent out by our own packers. 



Wrapping Paper. The writer is inclined to advise, but without hav- 

 ing personally made an exact and thorough test, that tissue paper is not 

 heavy or strong enough to protect Ontario peaches in shipment. Tissue 

 paper may do well enough for pears, or for California peaches, which ard 

 drier and firmer than our own; but for the soft and juicy peach of Ontario 

 a manila paper seems to give better results. This, however, should not 

 be so thick and heavy a- to bulk up unnecessarily, and particularly, should 

 be of a size proportioned to the size of the fruit to be wrapped. Here 

 again, the long-suffering consumer, who thought he was paying for prime 

 Ontario peaches, found upon opening some of the boxes that he had pur- 

 chased large twists of paper, with a comparatively insignificant peach done 

 up in a pocket at the end of each. In many cases, the paper used was al- 

 together too large. Now, what does this fact signify? Evidently, that 

 the packers were not in the habit of wrapping their peaches for market, 

 were not provided with paper of the proper size and weight, and when the 

 time came for them to fulfill this contract, were forced to use whatever 

 was at hand, or could be procured at short notice. One packer, driven to 

 desperate expedients, but as he confessed, well aware of the ludicrous na- 

 ture of the performance, used toilet paper for wrapping his pears. It is 

 quite evident that the business of packing the fruit has not yet received 

 serious attention from many of our fruit-growers. The time is coming,, 

 and cannot come too soon, when peaches will be wrapped and boxed for 

 shipment to our local markets. 



