336 FRUIT AND ITS CULTIVATION. 



grades. Choice dessert Plums or Greengages may be 

 packed in small boxes, in single layers, as described for 

 Apples, but without wrapping each fruit in tissue-paper. 

 They can lie close together on a bed of fine wood-wool 

 covered with tissue-paper. Handled chip baskets are also 

 used for choice Plums. 



Raspberries. For dessert these are usually gathered 

 with about half an inch of stalk, and marketed in punnets, 

 with a few leaves beneath them, or in 4-lb. chip-handled 

 baskets. The handiest punnets for packing are the 

 square, deep ones, as they fit well into a flat box or into 

 a case with shelves, and the fruit does not come above 

 the edges. Make each layer of punnets very firm and 

 secure, filling all corners with wood-wool or paper, and 

 label "This side up." When Raspberries are marketed 

 in bulk for cooking or jam, they usually go in small 

 wooden barrels supplied by the jam-makers. 



Strawberries. Handled chip baskets holding 4lb. are 

 now very largely used for choice Strawberries, but many 

 come in strikes (quarter-sieves). The former are very 

 much to be preferred, except for jam fruit. The earliest 

 Strawberries are tastefully packed in shallow punnets, 

 with a few leaves beneath and around them ; and later on 

 in deep, round and square punnets, holding about lib. 

 For the packing of these, see Raspberries. The strikes 

 are simply filled, and then have paper tied over the top. 



