February, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



37 



The Grading of Basket Fruits' 



F. M. Clement, Horticultural Experiment Station, Vineland, Ont. 



THE leading basket fruits are peaches, 

 pears, plums, grapes and cherries. 

 Cherries are seldom graded, the only 

 practice being to throw out all decayed, 

 cracked, damaged, under-ripe, and not at- 

 tractive fruits while picking or to look them 

 over and discard at the packing table those 

 unfit for shipment and sale. 



Grapes are seldom graded. The poorer 

 packages are discarded, but it is not con- 

 sidered good practice to ship No. 2 grapes. 



Plums, too, are ungraded. The best 

 trees of a variety may be sold as fancy 

 while the rest are sold as No. 1, but it is 

 seldom that the fruit from any one tree is 

 graded into two or three sizes. 



Pears must be graded into at least two 

 grades for size, color, uniformity and free- 

 dom from blemishes. 



Some apples are shipped in baskets, but 

 this cannot be considered a specialized 

 trade. Only the earlier varieties are sold 

 extensively in baskets. 



Is it advisable to fix by law certain stand- 

 ards for basket peaches somewhat after 

 the plan enforced for apples under the 

 "Fruit Marks Act"? It has been maintained 

 that the standardization of grades and packs 

 is the work of individuals and associations. 

 Possibly it is, but if so, it is the work of 

 individuals and associations for apples also. 

 It seems to me that the best aid it is pos- 

 sible to give the grower to-day is to fix 

 by law certain standards that basket fruits 

 must come up to. Many objections can, of 

 course, be raised to such a policy because 



•A paper read at the recent convention in 

 Toronto of the Ontario Fruit Growers' .\ssocia- 

 tion. 



of the multiplicity of varieties and the 

 variation in the size and color of varieties 

 depending on the season, but apples vary 

 in size and color also and with them the 

 "Fruit Marks Act" works comparatively 

 smoothly. The number of grades advisable 

 would possibly be three or four. I give this 

 only as an illustration — Fancy, Choice, No. 

 1, and No. 2. For each grade, I believe it 

 will be possible with a little practice to fix 

 the maximum number of peaches that could 

 be put into that grade. Below a certain 

 fixed number the fruit might be considered 

 Fancy. Between this and another number 

 a little higher, the fruit would be Choice, 

 and between this number a little higher, the 

 fruit would be No. 1, and last above this 

 number, the fruit would be No. 2. This 

 would necessitate also the establishing of a 

 minimum weight per basket and would ap- 

 ply only to the layered peaches in closed 

 packages. This may be far in advance of 

 what is possible at present, and I realize 

 such a law could not be put into force with- 

 out a great deal of discussion and possibly 

 opposition, but still I believe it is an ideal 

 worth aiming at. 



Suppose to-day, for instance, a big dealer 

 places an order with one of the buyers 

 and another order with one of the lead- 

 ing Associations, or he places orders with 

 Associations for Fancy and No. 1 fruit. 

 Has the dealer any guarantee that he will 

 receive a uniform grade of No. 1 from both 

 Associations or a uniform grade of Fancy? 

 He has only the reputation of the associa- 

 tion as a guarantee that the fruit will be of 

 good quality, but he has no guarantee that 

 the fruit will be up to a certain standard. 



Douglas Gardens 



OAKVILLE, ONT. 



Our new and enlarged 



Planting List 



1916-17 



Is Now Ready for 

 Mailing 



It will be sent to all whose 

 names are now on our Mailing 

 List, and to others interested who 

 will send their names and ad- 

 dresses. 



This Planting List is more than 

 a List of Plants. We have aimed 

 to make it interesting and in- 

 structive. 



Send us your name and address. 



JOHN CAVERS 



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Name 



Address ( P. O. ) 



Nearest R. R. Station 



