134 BIGGIE ORCHARD BOOK 



Handle fruit like eggs with care. Don't mix 

 different varieties, shapes and colors in one package. 

 Don't mix windfalls with hand-picked fruit. 



CHERRIES. Baskets not larger than eight or ten 

 pounds should be used in picking. The packing 

 house should have tables or frames with canvas bot- 

 toms, on which carefully to lay the cherries for sorting 

 into packages. The fruit in the package should be 

 uniform throughout and tastefully faced to attract the 

 attention of the fastidious, who will pay the highest 

 market price. In California, sweet cherries are usually 

 packed in shallow, small, wooden boxes holding about 

 ten pounds, and the fruit is carefully sorted and faced 

 in regular rows stem end down and out of sight. 

 The effect is very pretty, but such packing requires 

 labor and time ; it undoubtedly pays, however. In 

 the Bast, sweet cherries are commonly packed in 

 ordinary quart berry boxes, sixteen (or more) boxes 

 to the crate. If the top of each box is properly faced, 

 the effect is good ; but not so good as the California 

 package. 



Sour cherries are usually packed either in eight- 

 pound grape baskets, or in the quart boxes mentioned 

 in the preceding paragraph. The top layer of fruit 

 should be placed, stems down, in regular rows. 

 Girls or women can do this work nicely. The extra 

 expense of thus facing a basket of cherries amounts 

 to about four cents. Does it pay ? As a rule, yes. A 

 Michigan friend of mine does even more : He packs 

 his cherries in quart boxes in sixteen-quart crates, and 

 along the top edges of crate, folded down over the 

 fruit, he places a narrow edging of white lace-paper, 



