124 SUCCESSFUL FRUIT CULTURE 



one-half of an inch, it is safe to pick and put into 

 storage. Light frosts will injure unripe fruit, but 

 when fully ripened it will not be injured except by 

 a freeze. 



To retain the beauty of tlie fruit, the bunches 

 should be removed from the vine by taking hold of 

 the stem and cutting with a knife or scissors, so as not 

 to injure the bloom. Where large quantities are to be 

 picked, in some sections, they are placed on trays four 

 feet long by eighteen inches wide with cleats on ends and 

 a single layer deep, the trays to be stacked one above 

 another. These tra3's are made by nailing head pieces 

 upon the ends of a board of the required dimen- 

 sions. Strips two and one- 

 half inches wide and three- 

 eighths inch thick are nailed 

 on the edges of the trays to 

 keep the fruit from falling off. 

 (Figure 68.) This gives cir- 

 ig. - rape ray culation euough about the fruit 



and large quantities can be placed in a small space until 

 they are packed for shipping. 



Pacl'ing and Shipping — For nearby markets grapes 

 are packed in open trays, holding from twenty to 

 twenty-five pounds, the common Diamond market basket, 

 containing ten to twelve pounds, or in small chip or 

 veneer baskets, holding from three to six pounds, and 

 taken into the market with the bloom uninjured, but 

 for long distance shipping they are almost invariably 

 packed in the three, five, eight or ten-pound veneer 

 basket with a cover. Varieties with a tough skin pack 

 the best in the last named basket, though hundreds 

 of tons of the thin-skinned Concords and Wordens arc 

 packed and shipped in this way. To do this work 

 requires considerable skill and quick movements. In 

 sections wliere large quantities of grapes are grown, the 



