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CITRUS FRUITS IN CALIFORNIA: 



as is considered perfect, that is free 

 from blemishes, sound in quality, and 

 fairly smooth, is sorted out for the 

 fancy or extra fancy grade. The next 

 best goes to the choice grade, and 

 consists of such fruit as may be only 

 slightly blem- 

 ished and pos- 

 sibly not quite 

 so smooth as 

 the fancy 

 grade, but oth- 

 erwise sound 

 and of good 

 quality; that 

 which is quite 

 badly scarred 

 and with a 

 rough skin, but 

 of sound and 

 good keeping 

 quality, is 

 packed as stan- 

 dard; and all 

 fruit showing 

 an unsound 

 skin, either 

 from being 

 bruised in pick- 

 ing or hand- 

 ling, which 

 tends to impair 

 its keeping 

 qualities, is thrown out as culls. 



The standard box used for packing 

 oranges is divided into two compart- 



ments of the following dimensions: 

 11*4x11^x11^ inches and the sizes 

 into which the oranges are graded 

 are: 64s, 80s, 96s, 112s, 126s, 150s, 

 176s, 200s, 216s, 250s, and 324s, and 

 the bins are so arranged that each 



Packing lemons from the curing trays. 



Exterior citrus fruit packing house. 



size is graded into a separate recep- 

 tacle. After being packed the boxes 

 are carried to the press where the 

 tops are nailed on; they are then 

 ready to be loaded into the cars. 



A standard carload of oranges con- 

 sists of 384 packed boxes of the fol- 

 lowing sizes: Not more than 38 

 boxes of 96s or 112s, 76 boxes of 126s 

 and 38 boxes of 216s or 250s. The 

 remainder of the car to be made up 

 of 150s, 176s and 200s. All larger or 

 smaller sizes, and any in excess of the 

 above numbers of 96s, 112s, 126s, 216s 

 and 250s are considered off sizes and 

 are discounted from 25 to 50 per box 

 according to the market; 150s, 176s 

 and 200s are standard, and a car may 

 be made up entirely of these sizes 

 without discount although most mar- 

 kets demand a certain amount of large 

 and small fruit and packers usually 

 try to load in accordance with the 

 demand of the market to which they 

 are shipping, as the buyer will always 

 pay more for a car that suits his trade 

 than for one in which there are unde- 

 sirable sizes. 



