CHAPTER XIX 

 GRADING AND PACKING 



These two operations are very intimately associated and are 

 frequently performed by one operator at the same time. But 

 as methods improve there is more and more tendency to separate 

 the two and make the grading an operation by itself. While 

 we hear much less about this grading of fruit than we do about 

 packing it, and while fruit is frequently put upon the market 

 without any grading whatever, yet there is no doubt that where 

 anything like careful grading is done it requires more judgment 

 and closer attention to the business in hand than packing does. 

 Once a man learns the art, he can pack apples, for example, 

 into a box without much thought, provided they have been 

 graded and sized. It is largely a mechanical operation. But 

 when he is grading apples into from four to six grades, varying 

 in size and color, he must look critically at every fruit he handles. 



Reason for Grading. — Another point emphasizing the im- 

 portance of grading which is frequently overlooked is the poor 

 impression which a mixed lot of fruit always gives. It is worth 

 while to take out the large apples, and sell them separately, 

 merely for the improvement it makes in the appearance and price 

 of the medium-sized apples that remain. A customer will be 

 perfectly satisfied with an apple two and a half inches in 

 diameter, provided all the rest of the apples in the package are 

 of about the same size. But put this size in with some of three- 

 inch and larger specimens and he objects strenuously and thinks 

 he is being cheated. By all means grade carefully for any sort 

 of good fruit. 



Grades for Apples. — Just what the standard for the different 

 grades shall be, and just what names shall be used, is a some- 

 what mixed question at present. The grades for apples in 

 barrels recognized by the United States and the Canadian 

 federal laws are discussed in Chapter XXII. For boxed apples 

 the usual designations recognized by our western growers are 

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