Facing of Fruit. 407 



fruit (ordinarily the cheek) showing uppermost. The 

 top of the basket should present a uniform and 

 finished appearance, and should be slightly rounding 

 or oval in shape. There will ordinarily be a differ- 

 ence of from five to ten cents a basket between good 

 plums or peaches sent to the market as they are 

 picked from the tree, and those which are properly 

 packed and finished up. 



When packing apples and pears in kegs or bar- 

 rels, it is not always necessary to place every in- 

 dividual; and yet, if the packages are to go abroad, 

 it is ordinarily best to take this pains, laying all 

 the fruits in tiers, for thereby there is tight packing 

 and little shrinkage; and when one handles his fruit 

 so carefully he is constantly throwing out the in- 

 ferior samples. As apples are ordinarily handled for 

 our domestic trade, however, they are simply faced 

 upon the two ends. They ought always to be faced 

 upon one end. This facing is done by selecting 

 apples of uniform grade and placing them in con- 

 centric rows on the lower head or end of the bar- 

 rel. About two or three tiers should be faced, the 

 rings of one tier breaking joints with those of an- 

 other. The stem end should point towards the head 

 of the barrel. The apples in the middle of the 

 barrel may be turned in from a round -bottomed, 

 swing- handled basket, which can be let directly into 

 the barrel (or from a smaller basket which will 

 turn in the barrel), and after every basket is emptied 

 the barrel should be lightly shaken to settle the 

 fruits. It is generally advisable to face the upper 



