106 The Fruit-Growers Guide-Book 



layer of paper between each layer of apples to prevent 

 bruising as much as possible. The paper for wrapping, 

 apples should be kept in a little tray at the side of the box, 

 and the paper placed in the tray with the smooth side up, 

 in order that it will slip through the hands the more easily. 

 It is most convenient to wear a rubber thumbstall to aid in 

 picking up the paper, otherwise the packer must moisten 

 his thumb on his tongue each time he wraps an apple. 



In some sections where the layer pack is in use, each 

 layer is separated by a sheet of heavy paper or cardboard, 

 and each apple wrapped in tissue paper. This wrapping 

 paper is so arranged about the fruit that the corners of the 

 paper fold over the stem of each apple and serves as a 

 cushion. But since the wrapping of each individual apple is, 

 at the present time, believed to add nothing to the keeping 

 quality of the fruit, some of the leading districts of the 

 West do not wrap. 



Just how to put up each style of pack is a difficult mat- 

 ter to describe, although it is easily learned from experi- 

 ence. In the fruit districts of the Northwest there are be- 

 tween thirty and .forty different styles of packing in use, 

 no two of which are exactly alike. These are due entirely 

 to the variations in the size and shape of the different va- 

 rieties of fruit that are grown. Of these numerous styles 

 of packing, few persons ever use more than two styles in 

 their own packing house, and these are the less compli- 

 cated ones. 



Packing apples "straight" is comparatively simple, as it 

 is merely the selection and arrangement of the fruit in 

 straight rows parallel to the sides of the box. The rows 

 will be three, four or five apples wide across the end of 

 the box; from five to nine apples long and from three to 

 five layers deep. And while this is the easiest system of 

 packing apples, it is less flexible, accommodating fruits 

 of fewer- shapes, and is by far the hardest on the apples, 

 an each apple rests directly on the apple beneath it. 



The diagonal style of packing is somewhat less easily 

 learned, but it accommodates a greater variety of sizes and 



