Grapes 



193 



a little fire heat to help out the colouring at the end of the growing 

 season. 



When the natural covering of leaves falls, if grapes are to be kept 

 for any length of time the houses must be covered with canvas to exclude 

 the light and prevent shrivelling. Under the most careful conditions, 

 one very large grower 

 gives it as his opinion 

 that grapes kept till 

 March will lose weight 

 to the extent of 25 per 

 cent. 



Marketing. Grapes, 

 in spite of their perish- 

 able nature, can be sent 

 to market in very per- 

 fecteondition, the method 

 of packing being varied 

 to suit the distance they 



have to travel. Where Fig. 386.-Grapes in Handle Basket hooped for Paper Covering 



the market is close, and 



the grapes can be delivered by the grower's own vans, the grapes can 

 be packed in wicker baby baskets, or shallow boxes suitably padded 

 with wood wool covered with tissue paper. About 11 Ib. can be packed 

 in a baby basket, which in its turn is lowered into a cucumber flat, 

 which will just take it. Tons of grapes are marketed in this way, 

 though if they are sent by rail they are liable to receive damage at the 



Fig. 386. Grapes in Shallow Handle-basket. Packed with paper 



hands of porters, who will sometimes carry a couple of flats hanging 

 vertically, one in each hand, to the utter disregard of their contents. 

 Tin's actually happened to some of the writer's grapes, and, although each 

 bunch was tied into the rim of the basket, the lot were utterly ruined, 

 and with no prospect of redress from the company. 



For sending long distances there is nothing to beat the cross-handled 



baskets (figs. 385, 386), as the salesmen supply them, or in one of the 

 VOL. III. 43 



