Marketing Fruit. 469 



conveyance two or three in a package will cause the whole to 

 yield, become loose, and be spoiled. Mark the direction neatly, 

 and they will sell better than if marked carelessly or in a bungling 

 manner. For sending a few specimens of fine fruit, each should 

 be wrapped separately in tissue or other paper. 



MARKETING PEACHES. Those who have formerly been in the 

 practice of purchasing peaches gathered when half ripe, and with 

 their flavor less than half developed, will be glad to learn that 

 it has now become fully established that ripe peaches (not soft) 

 carry the best, and do not decay as soon as those in a half green 

 state. Dr. Hull, of Alton, 111., an extensive fruit-grower, stated 

 at the St. Louis Pomological meeting that he had been shipping 

 fruit to half a dozen different States, and that he has found that 

 when fully mature, and packed tight enough to prevent all friction 

 or rattling, they will " carry six days safely." He uses baskets 

 only, placing oak leaves in the bottom and between layers. 



MARKETING STRAWBERRIES. While many superficial or care- 

 less managers cannot send strawberries fifty miles in good salable 

 condition, the late J. Knox, of Pittsburg, was in the practice of send- 

 ing his four hundred miles, and receiving double and triple prices 

 for them. The fruit was allowed to ripen before picking. Mr. 

 Knox remarked : " We allow the fruit to mature enough for our own 

 table before it is gathered for market." It was handled with great 

 care, carefully assorted, and as carefully packed in neat boxes. 

 So large and finely grown were the berries that ten filled a pint box. 

 He has sent the Jucunda to New York on Monday, reaching there 

 on Tuesday, kept it until Friday and Saturday, and sold then at 

 higher prices than other berries raised in the immediate vicinity 

 of the city. So much for doing a thing well. 



SELECTING AND ASSORTING FRUIT. The truth cannot be too 

 strongly impressed on fruit-raisers, that on nothing does success in 

 marketing more depend than on selecting good specimens only. The 

 work should be commenced by thinning on the trees, while the young 

 fruit is yet small, and its importance should not be lost sight of at 

 any subsequent period. Cases have occurred where owners, in their 

 eagerness to sell everything, have put a few poor specimens in a 

 barrel of fine market pears, and these poor ones have spoiled the 

 sale of the whole. Very fine pears are often sold at twenty-five or 

 fifty cents apiece ; on the other hand a few bad ones will so reduce 



