898 THE FRUIT INDUSTRY IN NEW YORK STATE 



been on the barrel, I should have sworn that I never had packed 

 them, for they certainly did not look nearly so good to me there 

 as they did in my own orchard/' 



By a second method in common use, the grower sold his fruit 

 to a dealer or speculator, the grower picking and the dealer pack- 

 ing and paying by the barrel for the various grades that packed 

 out. In this case the dealer had difficulty in satisfactorily super- 

 vising packing operations, which went on simultaneously in sev- 

 eral orchards, and generally a dispute arose with the grower as 

 to the quality of fruit to be put in the various grades. As it 

 frequently worked out, the buyer's packer would be in " hot water " 

 most of the time trying to follow his employer's instructions, defer 

 to the grower's ideas, and maintain friendly relations. Conse- 

 quently even if the dealer secured a large quantity of fruit that 

 he marked under one brand, it was very seldom uniformly packed 

 and standardized. 



Under the third common method of orchard packing, the grower 

 sold his fruit by the orchard, the dealer doing the picking and the 

 packing, or the grower doing the picking and the dealer doing 

 the packing. Neither of these two methods satisfactorily standard- 

 ized the pack, because the dealer was now a biased judge of the 

 quality of the fruit. He owned it and naturally wished to pack 

 out as many "A" and -" B " grade apples as possible, and was not 

 therefore- careful to set a high standard for his grade, nor to main- 

 tain that standard during the packing operations. 



Since none of the methods of orchard packing fulfilled the requi- 

 sites for the successful marketing of a large quantity of fruit, 

 uniformly packed, the Central Packing House came into use. It 

 has not only accomplished its chief functions but also has furnished 

 a method whereby the grower is relieved of the responsibility 

 of supervising unreliable labor during the busy packing season, 

 and has avoided personal interference on the part of grower or 

 buyer in the endeavor to place his fruit in the better grades. 



TYPES OF PACKING HOUSES 



Two types of packing houses are in use. The one most com- 

 monly used in Nova Scotia, where the Central Packing House 

 idea is extensively developed, is a frost-proof (common) storage 

 with a packing room added. 



