102 GARDENING FOR THE SOUTH. 



attractive, clean, fresh looks. The remaining' room should 

 be large and provided with ample light and facilities for 

 rapidly assorting and packing. Benches or long tables 

 to hold the fruit and vegetables, to permit of the greatest 

 convenience to the packers, should be arranged around 

 this room, and in easy reach above them should be shelves 

 containing the empty crates and baskets to be used in 

 the day's operation. As rapidly as the baskets and crates 

 are packed they should be transferred to a central table, 

 where the tops are wired or nailed on, and they are con- 

 veniently piled for loading on the wagons for transporta- 

 tion to the depot. 



One of the indispensable requirements of the packing- 

 house is cleanliness in all departments. This is necessary 

 not only to insure clean condition of the fruit in the 

 crates and baskets, but also to prevent the presence of 

 disease, which will surely cause much of the shipment to 

 decay before it reaches the market. No vegetable or fruit 

 that is at all faulty should be allowed to enter the pack- 

 ing-house, if honest and first-class work is desired. 



The Crates, Boxes and Baskets. — These are now 

 supplied by the trade, so that it is not necessary to make 

 them in the packing-houses, as was the case in former 

 years. It is still the practice, however, with some 

 truckers to make their own crates, and, even when they 

 are purchased they come to the house " knocked down," 

 requiring simply a hammer and nails to put them 

 together. 



A variety of wood has been tried in making the crates, 

 but experience has proven that the sap wood from the 

 Georgia pine furnishes the best material, because there 

 is strength, elasticity, and absence of odors so frequently 

 found in other woods. 



The grape basket, illustrated in Figure 8, is the usual 

 form adopted by market gardeners for displaying this 



