CHAPTER XVIII. 

 PICKING, GRADING AND PACKING. 



By Cecil H. Hooper and Ernest M. Bear. 



The grower's financial results depend 

 very much on the care he gives to the 

 marketing of his fruit. There has been 

 considerable improvement in this respect 

 of recent years, but there are still plenty 

 of growers who are standing in their own 

 light by continuing to follow slip-shod 

 methods, as a visit to any of the big 

 markets will prove. There is not the 

 slightest doubt that it pays well to secure 

 a reputation in the market for fair and 

 honest packing, whilst good grading of 

 fruit that lends itself to the process always 

 brings its reward in the shape of higher 

 returns. 



Honesty is the keynote in packing. 

 Buyers are naturally plea'^^ed when they 

 find they can rely on getting full weight, 

 with the fruit just as good at the bottom 

 of the basket as it is on the top layer. 

 Yet many growers are content merely to 

 fill the baskets more or less level with a 

 mixed sample. Such haphazard methods 

 must go, together with the old discredited 

 plan of " topping up " with the best 

 fruit, which does not deceive a buyer more 

 than once. All fruit should be weighed, 

 no matter whether it is picked in the field 

 or in the packing shed. There is a recog- 

 nised market net weight for a bushel or 

 half-bushel of each kind of fruit, and It 

 io not much trouble to see that this 

 weight is packed, although the baskets, 

 unfortunately, vary in size a good deal. 

 For instance, any half-bushel of plums 

 should be adjusted to weigh 31ilb., which 

 allows 28lb. for the fruit and 3^1b. as the 

 average weight of the empty basket. 



For all fruits that lend themselves to it, 

 especially for apples and pears, grading 

 io profitable. Apples graded into firsts 

 and seconds realise more than the same 

 fruit sent to market as a mixed sample. 

 In many cases the seconds make as much 



as the mixed sample would, whilst the 

 firsts realise a good deal more. One has 

 only to try the experiment to see at once 

 that both big and little apples look much 

 better when sorted into fairly even sizes 

 and packed separately. The chances are 

 that even the seconds will look much nicer 

 than the original mixed sample. 



In addition to care in grading and fair- 

 ness in weighing, appearance should be 

 studied. Clean wood-wool and coloured 

 tissue paper look much better than mouldy 

 hay and old newspaper. It pays the 

 grower to present his fruit in attractive 

 form, just as it pays the retailer to expend 

 time and trouble on window-dressing. 

 Picking. 

 If fruit is to be well packed, it must 

 first be carefully picked. Knocking or 

 shaking down from the trees will not do 

 nowadays, because it is bound to bruise 

 the fruit and lower its value. For picking 

 from bush-shaped or half-standard trees 

 steps are needed. A handy form of steps, 

 which can be made by any firm of ladder- 

 makers, or even by local carpenters, is 

 wide at the base and pointed at the top, 

 where a pole is hinged to form the sup- 

 porting leg. These stand firm on uneven 

 ground, particularly if the leg is shod with 

 an iron spike, whilst the pointed top is 

 easily got between the branches. The 

 most convenient size is 6ft. 6in. high and 

 2ft. 3in. wide at the foot, fitted with seven 

 steps. Taller steps are heavy to lift 

 about, but a few pairs are useful for trees 

 that are high and yet not strong enough 

 to support ladders. 



For standard and other tall trees 

 ladders are a necessity. Special fruit- 

 picking ladders are sold. These are wide 

 at the foot and taper to a point at the top, 

 sc that they are light to lift about and 

 handy to push up into the tree. 



