PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 47 



peaches rapidly and accurately, and well trained 

 packers receive good wages. 



Nowadays, when peaches are to be shipped any 

 distance, they are usually forwarded in refrigerator 

 cars. This is especially the practice in Georgia, 

 Texas and California. Good refrigerator car service 

 is now almost a necessity to the peach business, and 

 has been the means of extending both the area of 

 peach growing and the period of consumption very 

 considerably. 



Peaches may also be kept for a certain time in 

 cold storage. Powell's experiments have shown that 

 firm, well-colored fruit will keep from two to three 

 weeks in a temperature of 32 degrees. It is possible 

 to keep peaches even longer than this under excep- 

 tionally favorable conditions, but for commercial pur- 

 poses even two weeks' storage is hardly to be gen- 

 erally recommended. Storage will often help, how- 

 ever, to tide over a temporary glut in the market; 

 and such stora.ge certainly furnishes a material addi- 

 tion to our equipment for handling the peach crop. 



Plums 



Plums ripen through a long season. This fact 

 presents a certain difficulty in picking and shipping 

 them. For home use plums should be allowed to 

 hang on the trees as long as possible. They should 

 be thoroughly ripe when picked. Even for shipping 

 to market certain varieties are frequently picked too 

 green. This is apt to be the case with the Damsons, 

 German Prune, Fellenberg and similar varieties, 

 which take on a heavy color long before they are 

 really mature. On the other hand, some varieties 

 are best picked for market at a period more or less in 

 advance of maturity. The Burbank plum is an ex- 

 ample.' This variety can be picked a week before it 

 is ripe, and will then mature in a satisfactory condi- 



