PICKING, PACKING AND MARKETING 



Many of the directions given for packing apples will give 

 you hints on packing peaches, plums and other fruit. Various 

 boxes and baskets are used for peaches. The best we have seen 

 is the flat box of the West. This is eleven and a half by eighteen 

 inches, and four, four and a half, or five inches deep. Just 

 two layers of peaches are put into it, arranged just as you 

 would place apples of the same size in a box. Peaches should 

 be wrapped if they are fine. The regular one-sixth and one- 

 half-bushel baskets and the high, flaring hampers also are good 

 for peaches. They come in various sizes. Sometimes the fruit 

 is arranged in rows and tiers, but more often it is left in a 

 jumble. The rows are better, of course. The six-basket carrier 

 is invaluable for the little baskets. In packing peaches, the use 

 of corrugated caps and excelsior pads is especially recom- 

 mended. A thick pad under the lid of a carrier will hold the 

 fruit solid, and will prevent the top layer bruising. Always use 

 corrugated boards under hamper lids. It pays. Quinces may 

 be handled in the same way as pears. Grading these two fruits 

 must be done by hand, and the different classes separated as 

 described for apples. Plums have no special package. Peach 

 baskets and boxes, grape baskets and strawberry boxes are 

 good carriers for them. They should be arranged in rows, 

 but need little wrapping, only the lining paper and the cor- 

 rugated caps. Cherries are best nicely arranged in rows in flat 

 wooden boxes. They can be marketed in strawberry boxes, but 

 this appears to be a makeshift. Ten-pound baskets some- 

 times are seen. Grapes should be left to wilt for twenty-four 

 hours before they are graded, and then put into baskets hold- 

 ing three, five, eight and ten pounds. These baskets are shipped 

 in crates, and never are unpacked until they reach the eaters. 

 If it is desired to hold grapes for quite a while in cold storage, 

 or in refrigator cars, they must be packed in barrels and half- 

 barrels, with cork "sawdust" as a filler between bunches. 



Drying, processing, making apple-butter, peach- and pear- 

 butter, and vinegar, etc., will use up all bruised fruits. We can 

 not give details here, but the tools and labor involved are within 

 reach of every grower. Learn about them and realize on the 

 windfalls and drops. 



As for selling, it's mostly up to you. You can grow good 

 fruit and throw it on the regular market. If you have graded 

 and packed it right, you hardly can fail to make a profit get 

 from $i to $2 per bushel for apples, say, and other fruits in 

 proportion. But "the man worth while" will not be satisfied 

 with what the regular market gives him. He will look up his 

 own consumers, or will get acquainted with big retailers or with 

 a good commission-man, then stick to the same people until 

 mutual confidence and dependence are established. They will 

 appreciate the extra care given to the fruit, and pay high prices 

 for it. Sometimes buyers will come to the orchard and take all 

 the fruit you grow at a certain price, or you may be able to 

 work up a trade in shipping your fruit to users all over the coun- 

 try. Unless you can do this, or know your commission house 

 very well, we strongly advise getting buyers to come to the 



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