Orchard and Garden Management 281 



used. They are well enough if they strike the fancy 

 of the market, and if the grower can buy them at a 

 satisfactory price. The advantage of the ten-pound 

 grape basket is that everybody knows it, and the 

 shipper can always buy it at a reasonable price. Fancy 

 plums for the fruit-stand trade are sometimes sold in 

 the quart baskets made for strawberries. Much of 

 the fancy fruit from California comes in small special 

 baskets, the individual fruits being wrapped in tissue 

 paper. The Simon plum nearly always comes to our 

 market in that way. 



These baskets should be filled in the packing 

 house, and not in the field. The fruit should be 

 brought in in the baskets used by the pickers, and 

 should all be sorted, graded and faced into the pack- 

 ages which are to take it to market. These packages 

 should then be sealed and marked. It will hardly be 

 necessary here to call attention to the value of careful 

 packing, honest facing, clean packages,. plain stencils, 

 and all the other details of neatness which have been 

 proven over and over again to be the secrets of profit- 

 able fruit selling with all classes of fruits. A man 

 who knows enough to grow a special crop like plums 

 will surely know the importance of these things and 

 will put them into conscientious practice. 



