How to Harvest the Fruit 



39 



San Dimas, California 



clipping with the other. When cut, the orange should be care- 

 fully placed in the picking sack with as little handling and jost- 

 ling as possible. When the picker has filled his sack he 

 then empties it carefully into the picking boxes previously 

 provided in close proximity to his location in the orchard. This 



A STANDARD LEMON PACK. 



also should be carefully done, by placing the sack with its contents 

 gently into the box, then unhook the bottom, when it should 

 be gently pulled away from its contents, allowing the fruit to 

 roll out easily into the box, but not filling it so close to the top 

 as to run the risk of bruising in piling one box over the other. 

 This operation is repeated until the requisite number of boxes 

 are filled constituting a wagon load, when the fruit is hauled to 

 the packing house. In the case of the lemon, the picker grades 

 the fruit suitable for cropping and curing according to size, 

 which is determined by means of a ring carried in the hand, de- 

 noting the diameter of the fruit desired. 



This practically constitutes the operations in the orchard, 

 from which the fruit is conveyed to the packing house in wagons 

 provided with springs calculated to obviate jolts and consequent 

 bruising and damage to the fruit. Arriving at the packing 

 house the fruit is first submitted to a thorough cleaning by pass- 

 ing through a series of revolving brushes which remove all delet- 

 erious substances and dirt which is in turn cleared away by auto- 

 matic blowers and finally removed to the outside of the building 

 by suction; from here the fruit goes directly into automatic 



weighers, which dump it when the requisite weight is attained, 

 then it passes into a contrivance known as a grader or sizer, 

 which designates in its operation the several sizes that go to make 

 up a box of fruit. While passing over the grader or sizer, hand 

 graders are stationed at regular intervals who remove the "stand- 



A PACKED BOX OF ORANGES. 



ard," "off" and "cull" grades, placing them'into boxes according 

 to their classification. In oranges the regular sizes are 126, 150, 

 176, 200, 216; small offs 250, 324, 360; large offs 64, 80, 96, 112. 

 Each number designates the actual quantity of individual 

 fruit to the box, As the different grades are carried over this belt 

 the smaller fruit reaches the sizer first and is carried to its bin, 

 the second second, and so on until the largest specimens are 

 delivered at the last bin in the line. This operation, in a large 

 establishment, is continuous during the shipping season cover- 

 ing a working day. At each bin there is stationed a packer, 

 whose business it is to wrap each fruit in an independent tissue 

 wrapper, placing the same carefully into the box in which the 

 fruit reaches the consumer. To save time and expedite the 

 work, others take the filled box from the hands of the packer at 

 the bins and convey them to the box press where they are auto- 

 matically pressed down and held in place while the operator 

 securely nails down the top and stamps the number and grade 

 of oranges in each box on the label end. From here the packed 

 boxes are stacked one upon another on their sides to the required 

 height ready for trucking into the car. Usually the labels desig- 



