Handling, Distributing, and Sale of Fruit 227 



a cold-storage plant as an adjunct to the distributing sys- 

 tem, and the packing-house may be equipped with box- 

 making and labeling machinery, and with various appli- 

 ances which the individual grower cannot afford, but which 

 are essential in the efficient and economical handling of a 

 large fruit business. 



In the small-fruit industry the central packing-house 

 is hardly practical. It is often operated successfully in 

 the deciduous fruit business and in the grape industry. 

 It has been developed most extensively in the citrus-fruit 

 business in California and is being developed in the as- 

 sociation method of orange handling in Florida. There 

 are more than two hundred of these association packing- 

 houses in the citrus industry hi California. The packing- 

 house is erected by the association alongside of the rail- 

 road. It is equipped with all the necessary appliances for 

 fruit-handling, the house and equipment costing from 

 ten to twenty thousand dollars or more. The manager 

 of the packing-house is usually the general manager of 

 the association, and he receives a salary varying from 

 fifteen hundred to four thousand dollars a year. 



The Pooling of Fruit 



Two general methods may be adopted in handling the 

 fruit of the individual members of an association. In 

 one, the product of the individual is kept separate, and the 

 returns to the grower depend on the sale of his own fruit. 

 In the other, fruit of similar grade belonging to the differ- 

 ent members is pooled and sold under the brands of the 

 association as a common commodity. The pool is an 

 arrangement by which the fruit of similar grade of all the 



