HARVESTING AND MARKETING 137 



In packing, the box is first lined with cheap 

 paper — news stock usually. This is put in in 

 two sheets lapped over at. the bottom and long 

 enough to extend up the sides and lap over the 

 fruit when the box is filled. 



There are various packing formulas for fill- 

 ing an apple box, depending upon the size of 

 the fruit that is being handled. Each size nat- 

 urally takes a different style pack although 

 many of them are so similar that the descrip- 

 tion of one method will suffice for all. The 

 "three-two" pack is the most common and is 

 adapted to many sizes of fruit. It is started 

 by placing two apples in the lower corners of 

 the box. The third is then placed midway be- 

 tween these two. Then two apples are placed 

 in the spaces between the three end apples and 

 form the second row. It is this arrangement 

 that gives the style of pack its name. The third 

 row is a repetition of the first one and so on 

 until the bottom of the box is filled. The sec- 

 ond layer starts not with three apples but with 

 two, just reversing the order of the pack on 

 the first layer. In this way the box is filled so 

 that no apple comes directly above any other 

 apple but always directly above a space between 

 two fruits. So packed a box of apples acts as 

 its own cushion and bruising is reduced to the 

 minimum. If very slightly smaller apples are 

 used in the ends of the box it will result in a 



