42 



In handling, the greatest care should be exercised 

 that the rind is not bruised or cut, as fruit so dam- 

 aged quickly developes decay. After being har- 

 vested, oranges should be allowed to sweat for a 

 few days in the picking boxes before they are sent to 

 the packing house, as the skin in shrinking becomes 

 somewhat tougher and is in consequence not so easily 

 injured whilst the fruit is being packed. 



In packing, oranges are first graded, either by 

 mechanical graders or by hand, and are then packed 

 according to the diagonal system of packing into 

 standard bushel cases. 



The number of Washington Navel oranges thatrf 

 are packed to the case varies from about 53 for very 

 large fruit to about 200 for small fruit the sizes at 

 present most favored by sellers at Melbourne (the 

 chief market for navel oranges in Australia) being 

 those of medium size, i.e., fruit going from about 

 83 to 154 per case. Mandarins are usually packed 

 on the diagonal system, and vary from about 200 

 to 300 per case. After having been stencilled, 

 packed, and nailed down, the number of fruits each 

 case contains is branded on the outside of the case. 



At present, the packing and marketing of citrus 

 fruits is carried on by both individual growers and 

 by associations of growers in the form of co-operative 

 societies. 



Although it may pay individual growers harvesting 

 large quantities of fruit such as 1,000 cases or over 

 to erect private packing houses with all up-to-date 

 appliances, such is not the case with smaller growers 

 who have but a comparatively small quantity of 

 fruit to handle. In such instances growers have 

 either to hand-grade, pack, find markets, and consign 

 their fruit themselves, or to send it to a packing 

 association to do this work for them. 



As the Quantity of citrus fruits produced yearly 

 increases, due to the large plantings made in recent 

 years, thereby making increased marketing facilities 



