392 



PEAR GROWING IN CALIFORNIA. 



to be picked, trees will be stripped of everything and there is no 

 attempt made at grading in the orchard. Such fruit should be graded 

 in the packing house, and now that the "Fresh Fruit Standardization 

 Law" requires packed fruit to be "practically uniform" in size, grad- 

 ing is absolutely necessary if the law is to be obeyed. Mechanical 

 graders have been little used for pears in California, the work being 

 done by hand almost entirely. Packers become very expert in grading 

 and without the use of rings can perform the work quickly and accu- 

 rately when they once become accustomed to the sizes that they are 

 expected to select. 



Fig. 179. Well-packed box of pears. 



PACKING; 



Pears are packed in boxes 18 inches long, 11^ inches wide and 

 8^ inches deep. The number in a box varies according to the size and 

 pack. The arrangement of the pack is shown in Fig. 179. Each pear 

 is wrapped neatly in a piece of paper and placed firmly but carefully 

 in the box. A good packer nests every pear in such a way that there 

 is no chance for its moving about in the pack. Solidness is the princi- 



FiG. 180. Packed box of pears showing the ordinary excessive 

 bulge. 



174 



