8 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 



and, after being thus dried, are removed by hand. 

 Through it all, there is one general rule to keep in mind : 

 That all first or second quality fruit should be picked 

 by hand and handled with e.very possible care. 



Stems On or Off. Different sections of the country 

 have different ways of handling the fruit, but the cus- 

 tom is generally to pick all of the more perishable fruits 

 with the stems on. Every stem that is pulled out of a 

 fruit breaks the skin, and this allows an entrance for 

 some of the decay organisms. Some fruits separate 

 naturally from the stem, while in others it is quite diffi- 

 cult to remove the fruit and keep the stem with it. With 

 some of the more tender fruits, such as strawberries 

 and sweet cherries, the fruit is picked with the stem 

 on. In order to do this the thumb and finger is placed 

 each side of the stem itself, the hand not touching the 

 fruit. 



This entails considerable care on the part of the picker, 

 but in ac'tual practice has always been found successful. 

 In the United States, the fruits that are 'picked with the 

 stems on are more or less the same in all of the different 

 fruit-growing sections. The following list includes the 

 more common fruits which are picked with the stems on 

 or off. 



STEMS WITH REGARD TO COMMON PRACTICE 

 Stems on Stems o 



Apple Plum Orange Raspberry 



Pear Persimmon Pomelo Blackberry 



Quince Grape Peach Dewberry 



Cherry Strawberry Apricot Almond 



Lemon Currant Prune Walnut 



Citron Pig Olive 

 Lime 



