THE REGULATION OF THE FRUIT TRADE 67 



to remedy were the following : i) Topping — a top laji'er of good berries 

 conceals inferior berries ; 2) Irregularity of size and of degree of maturity 

 within one package ; 3) Pest infection which in States having quarantine 

 laws results in the condemnation of whole consignments ; 4) The mixing 

 of varieties in one package ; 5) Wrong and irregular marks ; 6) Small content 

 of sugar. In one 5^ear progress has been made towards preventing these 

 abuses and the law has thus been shown to have great practical value. 



At the Fort^'-Ninth State Fruit Grower's Convention, held at Na])a 

 in November 1916, some proposals w-ere however made for completing 

 and improving the regulation of the fruit trade. These were mainly : 

 a) that all counties should by certain procedure be compelled to appoint 

 inspectors ; b) that the different counties of the State shovild fornmlate 

 uniform standards, thus introducing simplicity into the trade and allow- 

 ing distant buyers to place orders at fixed prices for definite classes of goods; 

 c) that packed fruit should be more precisely defined ; d) that the law 

 should apply to all consignments of fruit, including those intended for 

 Cahfornian markets ; e) that some central authority should have complete 

 control of the inspection of frmt. 



§ 3. An EFFORT TO STANDARDIZE THE POTATO TRADE. 



While the movement towards the standardizing of fruit intended for 

 sale is thus gaining ground, an effort is also being made in many States 

 to standardize the potato trade which has not yet been scientifically or- 

 ganized. Wholesale potato merchants recognize the need for- standar- 

 dization in order to minimize the expense, risk and waste which threaten 

 to change into loss the small profits of this trade. Two grades, N" i and 

 No 2, should be established for every variet}^ of potato grown. The use 

 is recommended of machine potato diggers, and of machine sizers or gra- 

 ders which grade the potatoes according to size only, leaving the producer 

 to grade them according to quality or in other words to weed out those 

 which are defective. 



The trade is simpHfied b}" the use of uniform containers. A Federal 

 Act fixes the capacity of the barrel commonly used for potatoes but a large 

 variety of sacks are also used and the fixing of prices in the different 

 markets is thus needlessly complicated. 



For the realization of the desired reform the formation of co-operative 

 associations and the aid of those already in existence would be of the 

 greatest service. 



