Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



October, 1920 



The Evolution of Box Apple Packing in the Northwest 



THE evolution of the packing table 

 from the old familiar gunny sack 

 covered table to the present 

 highly efficient power grader, reads 

 almost like a romance. One's memory 

 does not have to go back very far to 

 recall the days when the old farm 

 hack and other farm paraphernalia 

 were ejected from the barn to make 

 room for the packing table and the 

 many stacks of boxes, each stack rep- 

 resenting a different grade, and pos- 

 sibly two different sizes of sorted 

 fruit. 



This transformation has been 

 achieved through necessity — - the ne- 

 cessity of greater economy in time and 

 labor. The young orchards of ten 

 years ago have now come into full 

 bearing, and to handle the greatly in- 

 creased production it has become 

 necessary to discard the old packing 

 methods and employ new ones. 



In order that we may visualize the 

 transformation, let us briefly survey 

 the packing house operations for the 

 past ten years. It must be realized that 

 no two growers handle their fruit in 

 the same manner, but the following 

 description, the writer believes to be 

 fairly representative of the methods 

 pursued by the majority of growers. 



As this article will only treat with 

 the packing end of the apple harvest 

 we will follow the fruit from the time 

 it enters the apple house or barn until 

 it is ready for shipment. In 1910 the 

 fruit on arrival at the packing house 

 from the orchard, was stacked in 

 boxes from six to nine boxes high, 

 each variety being segregated as far as 

 the usually limited storage space per- 

 mitted. The fruit was next sorted, 

 and everything made ready for the 

 actual packing operation. The sort- 

 ing of the fruit was undoubtedly the 

 most tedius and expensive of all the 

 various packing house operations. 



A long narrow table, varying in 

 length from five to ten or twelve feet, 

 and some forty inches in width, was 

 used for this purpose. A box of un- 

 sorted fruit was placed in front of the 

 sorter, who not only had to determine 

 the grade or quality of the apple, and 

 in some varieties, this meant five sep- 

 arate grades, but also the dividing 

 point between large and small apples. 

 Ranged along the table, and within 

 reaching distance of the sorter, wore 

 placed empty boxes into which he 

 placed the sorted fruit. When a box 

 was filled it was placed in a stack rep- 

 resenting a special grade or size of 

 fruit. . The sorting operation usually 

 continued until the floor space was 

 entirely congested, if the grower was 

 fortunate enough to possess sufficient 

 floor space, the sorting and packing 

 operation were both carried on at the 

 same time. The usual practice, how- 

 ever, was to sort a quantity of fruit, 

 pack it out, and to repeat this process 

 until the entire crop was packed out. 



From the stack of sorted fruit the 



By Walter L. Mason, of Hood River, Oregon 



apples were dumped (and I use this 

 term advisably) on a burlap-covered 

 frame about the height of an ordinary 

 table. The more fruit that was piled 

 on the table the better the packer 

 liked it, as it gave him a greater se- 

 lection — this piling of the table, of 

 course, resulted in much bruised fruit 

 as often the apples which were first 

 poured on the table remained there 

 for many subsequent pourings. To 

 add to the packer's trouble, several 

 sizes of apples were packed in what 

 was called a "California box." The 

 cubic contents of this box was the 

 same as our present standard box. 

 Why and when it was introduced the 

 writer does not know. That it was fin- 

 ally discarded is something for which 

 the growers are very grateful. As 

 from 5 to 10 different sizes of apples 

 were piled upon the same table at the 

 same time, it often meant that a packer 

 would be compelled to set aside a par- 

 tially packed box and start on a dif- 

 ferent sized pack, returning to the 

 first pack only after a sufficient num- 

 ber of apples of corresponding size to 

 his first pack were uncovered, or ad- 

 ditional fruit was dumped on the table. 

 It was not at all uncommon to find 

 a packer with 5 or 6 partially com- 

 pleted boxes piled indiscriminately 

 around the table. This, of course, 

 greatly hindered the packer and fre- 

 quently induced him to top out a box 

 with off-size apples rather than set 

 the box aside when near completion. 

 It was an exceptional packer who 

 could turn out 100 packed boxes a day 

 under this old system, from 60 to 75 

 boxes per day was the average pack. 

 The box, when completed, was carried 

 from the packing table to the box 

 press, where the tops were clamped 

 down and nailed, the box stamped and 

 stacked for shipment. This roughly 

 was the packing house procedure in 

 1910. It was not long, however, before 

 increased production demanded more 

 efficient methods, and in the next five 

 years there appeared on the market 

 various combinations of sorting and 

 packing tables, which greatly relieved 

 the old congested packing house con- 

 ditions, and also helped to reduce the 

 packing cost. The new and outstand- 

 ing feature of these tables was the 

 combination of sorting and packing 

 facilities. In general they were com- 

 prised of a series of packing bins 

 so arranged that each bin was within 

 easy reaching distance of the sorter. 

 One type of table resembled a three- 

 quarter section of a wheel, the sorter 

 stationed at the hub and placing the 

 sorted fruit according to size and 

 grade in bins formed by the rim and 

 the spokes of the wheel. In another 

 type the bins, some 6 or 8 in number, 

 were arranged back to back with a 

 separate gravity canvas shute leading 

 to each bin from the sorting table. In 

 this way a sorter could grade his fruit 

 flora a small canvas covered table. 



Even under this method it was usually 

 necessary to sort one grade into boxes 

 and pack them out separately later 

 on, as only two grades could be con- 

 veniently sorted into the bins and af- 

 ford any real discrimination in size. 

 About this time, 1915, the first really 

 efficient power graders appeared, and 

 from that date to the present time 

 many have called but few have been 

 chosen. We will, therefore, pass over 

 the discarded and briefly note the out- 

 standing features which are common 

 to most of the present-day power 

 graders. 



The power grader of to-day con- 

 sists of from 10 to 20 bins, according 

 to the number and grades and sizes 

 required, arranged back to back in 

 two equal rows. 



On the smaller graders of eight to 

 twelve bins, the bins on one side of 

 the table represent one grade, those 

 on the other side a second grade. On 

 the large machine a number of the 

 end bins are used for a third grade 

 and are fed by a separate conveyor. 

 Apples which fall into the cull class 

 are either carried on over the end 

 of the table by a conveyor and dumped 

 into a box or are deflected by the 

 sorter when they appear on the sort- 

 ing table. 



An endless belt chain or slat con- 

 veyor passes over and between these 

 two rows of bins, conveying the apples 

 from the sorting table. The apples on 

 the conveyor are deposited in the dif- 

 ferent bins, according to size, by 

 either a deflecting belt, counter weight 

 and spring, or some other mechanical 

 device, and these devices have been 

 so perfected in the past two or three 

 years that the uniformity in the size 

 of apples in a single bin is phe- 

 onmenal. 



The sorting table is so arranged that 

 the apples pass in front of the sorter 

 on a belt conveyor and are transferred 

 by the sorter, according to grade, to 

 the different conveyor belts, which 

 pass in front of him. A movable frame 

 on which the packer places his box is 

 attached to the side of the grader, thus 

 permitting the packer to pass from 

 one bin to another on completion of 

 the box. 



In most up-to-date packing houses 

 the boxes are conveyed from the 

 grader to the box press on a gravity 

 conveyor, and from the press to a 

 storage stack in like manner. Where- 

 as the development of the box press 

 has not been as revolutionary as the 

 packing table, nevertheless there has 

 been a number of notable improve- 

 ments to the crude press of ten years 

 ago. Formerly the placing of the tops 

 and cleats and nailing them down was 

 an arduous and slow process. To-day 

 it is done very quickly and with some 

 processes the boxes are stamped at 

 the same operation. 



The next ten years will probably 



