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put some paper shavings on top of the fruit, put the lid on, and 

 press gently with the knee and nail down. A well packed case can 

 be put on any of its sides without the fruit moving at all, although 

 the apples are not tightly jammed. 



The Tasmanians who after years of trial, attended with alter- 

 nate success and failure, have now firmly established a large and 

 growing export of apples exercise the utmost care in handling the 

 cases. A few occasionally get somewhat jarred, but they are at 

 once put aside and re-sorted, for one damaged case put up to 

 auction at Covent G-arden often affects the sale of a large parcel. 

 It is not uncommon for one steamer to take on board ten to twelve 

 thousand cases which, one and all, are most gently handled. The 

 shippers have their representatives present to see that everything is 

 properly done. The cases of apples are lowered from the stacks 

 awaiting shipment on to trollies, then lifted on to the shoots, down 

 which they smoothly slide into the hold of the vessel. There the 

 men receive them (working under supervision), carefully stack 

 them, and thus the whole operation of shipping goes on expeditiously 

 and smoothly. 



Peaches require even more delicate handling than do apples 

 and pears. The style of packing of the Michigan and Georgia 

 peach-growers is here illustrated. 



Michigan Peach Basket. 



This is much like the standard grape basket, the chief difference 

 being in the cover, which is made of slats nailed to a curved rim at 

 either end. This package varies somewhat in size, a favourite one 

 holding a peck. 



Another form of peach package is the six-basket crate. In 

 shape it is much like the strawberry crate, and is made to hold two 

 tiers of three small wood veneer punnets. These punnets hold 

 about half a peck, so that the six-basket crate contains about three- 

 fourths of a bushel of fruit. Between the two rows of punnets is a 

 false partition made of thin board, to prevent the bruising of the 

 fruit in the lower tier. Larger crates to hold either three tiers of 

 punnets or two rows of four punnets each could also be made with 



