i6o The Connecticut Pomological Society 



practice you can get off a lot of them pretty evenly over the 

 tree. I don't suppose that is the proper w^ay to do, and it is not 

 my ideal vi^ay of doing it, but it does get off a lot of the fruit, 

 and 1 think it pays better. If you knovv^ of any better way, and 

 I hope you do, I wish somebody would inform me their way of 

 doing it, but until I know of something better I am going to 

 shake my Japanese plums because it is a benefit to me to do it. 



Now comes the size of the package. I have tried various 

 things to ship in. I have tried a ten -pound crate basket plaited 

 over the top with a board cover. I do not like that because the 

 package does not show how much fruit there is in it. The 

 basket don't show the quantity of fruit very well. I have 

 dropped that. I have tried berry crates, and quart baskets, and 

 strawberry and raspberry crates. I have tried those, and I am 

 not sure but I may try them again. I have also tried a carrier. 

 Most of my plums I have shipped in peach baskets. The 

 ordinary sized half-bushel basket, and everything considered, cost 

 of transportation, and cost of package, so far, with the exception 

 of an experiment I tried with berry baskets, they have turned me 

 more clear money in the peach baskets. It does not seem to 

 me, though, that that was the right way. I don't know what 

 is the best thing, and I wish I did. A commission man told me 

 that he could send me raspberry crates for 15 cents a crate, and 

 as they come as returned crates I can get them delivered at my 

 station for that. Perhaps you can do the same way. 



When it comes to grading and putting up your fruit for 

 market, there is a chance for you to use good judgment to please 

 your trade. Last year I had a good run of plums, and they ran 

 very fairly uniform in size. I picked the plums off and put them 

 right in the baskets, put the covers on, and let them go. I was 

 in somewhat of a hurry, and that is the way I did. Other folks 

 will not tell you to do that, but I am here to tell you my experi- 

 ence. Most of them will tell you to grade your fruit generally, 

 Japan plums, and everything else; that it will sell better in the 

 market. They tell you to put your fruit up nicely. But I am 

 telling you, gentlemen, I believe a good many fruit-growers are 

 dishonest about that very thing. They grade their fruit, and 

 put their good ones on top, and the poor ones somewhere else. 

 Some folks will put up fruit that way and then put the shipping 



