V-* 



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THE PACKING OF GRAPES FOR MARKET. 



Common Grapes packed badly or damaged in transit, lose, as a rule, 

 about one-half their value, whilst " best " lose frequently two-thirds. 

 Higher prices than those quoted are occasionally received for excep- 

 tionally good produce. Guernsey greenhouse Grapes, during the 

 autumn months, make from threepence to eightpence per pound; 

 extra good quality, one shilling or thereabouts. The highest prices 

 are received for late Grapes during March and April. These are, 

 however, subject to considerable discount on account of loss of weight 

 through shrinking. One of the best growers estimates this at ten 

 per cent, up to tfanuary, and as much as twenty- five per cent, up to 

 March, so that a hundred pounds of Grapes on December 1st are 



Fig. 34. FLAT BASKET OF GRAPES PACKED FOR MARKET FROM SHORT 

 DISTANCES. WEIGHT 16 LBS. 



reduced to about seventy-five pounds in March. Thus the higher 

 price received at the latter date is practically absorbed. An excellent 

 illustration of this lately came under our notice. Of two houses, 

 each a hundred feet long by twenty-five feet, containing Gros 

 Colman, the crop apparently equal, the fruit in the first house, 

 cut in December, weighed two thousand pounds, whilst that in the 



