GRADING 283 



have at last been produced. The obstacles which have had to be 

 overcome in the perfecting of such a machine have been very great, 

 and a brief account of them will be given here. 



Apples of different varieties differ widely in shape. For instance, 

 a Rhode Island Greening is fiat, the diameter from stem to calyx 

 being much less than the cheek-to-cheek diameter, while a Spitzen- 

 burg is of the opposite shape. Decided differences in shape are 

 also common in apples of the same variety. For instance, in some 

 districts the Spitzenburg will closely resemble the Jonathan in form, 

 while in another district it will be a decided Sheepnose. Not only 

 this, but apples of the same variety grown in the same district, or 

 even in the same orchard, may differ materially in shape. Such 

 cases can sometimes be traced to a difference in the conditions 

 under which the apples are grown, the soil often playing an im- 

 portant part in the character of the fruit. These shape irregularities 

 are confined almost exclusively to the blossom end of the apple. 

 Regardless of the variety, the greatest cheek circumference of the 

 apple is in all cases an almost perfect circle. 



These facts concerning the various shape peculiarities explain 

 why the greatest cheek-to-cheek diameter of the apple has become 

 the recognized size-determining factor in systematized packing. 

 Prior to 191 1 there was no mechanical deciduous-fruit sorter, be- 

 cause the problem of cheek-to-cheek measuring by machinery had 

 not then been solved. 



Spitzenburgs which ranged in cheek-to-cheek diameter from 

 3g\ inches to 3^ inches pack out 96 in a box having an inside 

 measurement of ic4 X II J X 18 in. However, it is clear that a 

 96 Rhode Island Greening of the same cheek-to-cheek diameter 

 would not have filled the box ; in other words, a 96 Esopus must 

 have a smaller cheek-to-cheek measurement than a 96 Rhode 

 Island Greening, because the Rhode Island Greening, being shorter 

 from stem to calyx, has a greater cheek-to-cheek diameter to 

 compensate. Similar differences are found in apples of the same 

 variety which are grown under slightly different conditions. For 

 example, a certain section of an orchard one year produced apples 

 having a much greater development at the blossom end than 

 had the apples from the other parts of the orchard. The entire 

 crop, which amounted to about twelve thousand boxes, was handled 



