APPLES 



395 



breaking of a large limb from tbe top, in 

 August. The apples have averaged me $2 

 per barrel." 



G. C. Miller, 

 Middleton. N. S. 



POINTS ON PACKING AND HANDLING 

 APPLES IN BARRELS 



G. H. Vroom 



Dominion Fruit Inspector 



Middleton. Nova Scotia 



In compliance with your request to 

 write something touching the apple indus- 

 try in the Province of Nova Scotia, I beg 

 to submit the following: 



First, and very important in packing 

 and marketing fruit, is a good, well made 

 package. The staves in a barrel should 

 be so made that when the barrel is fin- 

 ished it will be 18% inches in the bilge, 

 inside measurement. These staves should 

 be thoroughly dried before using or mak- 

 ing up into barrels. Spruce is the best 

 wood for apple barrels, on account of it 

 being light to handle, and more durable 

 than other kinds of soft wood. Both ends 

 of an apple barrel should be planed, and 

 should be made of spruce wood, five- 

 eighths of an inch thick, and cut large 

 enough to give a 17-inch inside measure- 

 ment to the head, when the barrel is fin- 

 ished. Hoops may be either flat or half 

 round. A split half-round hoop made of 

 birch or any other tough, hard wood, will 

 stand more handling than a flat one, but 

 does not give the barrel so good a finish. 

 I think it would be a great advantage if 

 eight hoops were put on a barrel instead 

 of six. All barrels used for packing 

 apples should be thoroughly and properly 

 nailed before the fruit is packed in them, 

 except the bottom, which should be well 

 nailed after the barrel has been closed up. 

 Care should be taken that the nails enter 

 the head, and not go under it, as is very 

 often the case, and if the barrel gets a 

 fall, or the pressure is heavy on any par- 

 ticular barrel when in the sling, while be- 

 ing lowered into the ship's hold, the head 

 comes out, and the apples go down among 

 the barrels and are wasted. Too much 

 care cannot be used in nailing the barrel. 

 The proper way is to use small nails and 

 liners, the same as used in flour barrels. 



One other important thing is the stencil- 

 ing. There are still left a few people who 

 persist in marking their barrels with pen- 

 cil, and in some cases incompletely at 

 that, and the package looks badly, or, to 

 say the least, has an unfinished appear- 

 ance. 



The Inspection and Sale Act reads as 

 follows: "Every person who, by himself 

 or through the agency of another person, 

 packs fruit in a closed package, intended 

 for sale, should cause the package to be 

 marked in a plain and indelible manner 

 in letters not less than half an inch in 

 length, before it is taken from the prem- 

 ises where it is packed, with the initials 

 of his Christian names and his full sur- 

 name or, in the case of a firm or corpo- 

 ration, with the firm or corporate name 

 and address, with the name of the variety 

 or varieties, and with a designation of 

 the grade of fruit, which shall include one 

 of the following four marks, viz.: Fancy, 

 No. 1, No. 2, No. 3. Such mark may be 

 accompanied by any other designation of 

 grade or brand, if that designation of 

 grade or brand is not inconsistent with 

 or marked more conspicuously than the 

 one of said four marks which is used on 

 the said package." 



Every fruit grower should have a set of 

 stencils, so that he will be in a position 

 to properly mark his barrels, for by so 

 doing he will add to the price in the 

 market, and consequently to his bank 

 account. 



More care than is generally taken 

 should be exercised in handling from or- 

 chard to storehouse. A great many grow- 

 ers fill their barrels In the orchard, and 

 allow them to sit about on the ground 

 without the heads In and, if rain hap- 

 pens to fall, the apples, as well as the 

 barrels, are soaked with water. And 

 again, what is nearly as bad, is to head 

 the barrels and lay them down on the 

 side, scattered over the orchard on the 

 cultivated land, and the rain spatters 

 mud over them, and by the time the pack- 

 ages are stored they look anything but 

 attractive, and bring less money on the 

 market because they show unmistakable 

 signs of carelessness and bad handling. 



