The Canadian Horticulturist. 



271 



FANCY FRUIT. 



HE art does not belong to everyone of putting up 

 fruit in fancy style so as to command prices above 

 the ordinary. The first point is, of course, 

 to produce such fruit by extraordinary care in 

 cultivation, manuring, pruning, etc. The great 

 importance of an attractive label should also be 

 considered ; white paper with blue lettering is 

 attractive, and should have printed upon it the 

 grower's name and the nature of the goods, grade, 

 etc. This can easily be pasted on each wooden 

 package. 

 Picking, grading and packi?tg choice fruit is a work of art, and unless a man 

 has it in him, he cannot learn it by reading. All fancy fruit should be wrapped 

 in dainty wrappers, white tissue is best, with the grower's name in bright blue 

 ink. How beautifully such a label will blend with the scarlet and gold of a 

 fancy Crawford peach ! Who could pass a box of peaches so wrapped, and 

 placed in shallow crates in layers and rows, without buying them ! while the 

 same person might pass a box or basket of unassorted fruit without notice. The 

 proper grading is best done by having a packer for each grade, and when a 

 basketful is turned out on the packing table each one selects fruit to suit his 

 class, as, for example, extra selected, selected and ist class ; and what remains 

 is sold as 2nd class, if at all. A California packer gives the following as his 

 system of grading peaches for market ; and in reading observe that instead 

 of the terms we use, he employs the primes, extras, and standards : 



" Before closing I will, in as few words as possible, explain my system of 

 grading for market. Primes, or first grades, are packed 48 to 52 to the box 

 six by four, top and bottom, or permissibly seven by four at the bottom. They 

 must be nearly uniform in size, so as to pack square and snug, fitted in just so 

 tight that the filled box may be set on end without its contents falling out, this 

 holds good moreover of each and every grade. 



" Extras, or second grade, go 56 to d^t to the box, two rows of seven by four 

 each, or, for the higher number, a bottom row of seven by five. 



" Standards, or third grade, should not exceed 80 peaches to the box, eight 

 rows of five each top and bottom ; anything running smaller than this 1 rate as 

 culls, to be used for domestic purposes or sale to the canner or dry house!" 



"Johnny, add seven apples to two apples, and what will you have? 

 Colic, sir." — Harper's Bazar. 



