308 The Commercial Apple Industry 



ability. Extreme accuracy is not required in sizing 

 barreled apples as is the case with boxed apples. (3) The 

 sizing should be accomplished without bruising the fruit. 



Community packing-houses 



The community packing-house idea is gaining in popu- 

 larity and prominence, being a development of the cooper- 

 ative movement so important among fruit-growers. The 

 advantages of community packing-houses are numerous, 

 and yet this plan is feasible only under certain favorable 

 conditions. At the present time, most of the community 

 packing-houses are in the western apple regions. By 

 far the larger portion of the crop in such districts as Wen- 

 atchee is being packed out under the community plan. 

 This practice is gaining in western Xew York and in 

 many other regions, and promises to play an increasingly 

 important part in the efficient handling of the barrel apple 

 crop. 



Some of the necessary conditions for the successful oper- 

 ation of community packing-houses are as follows: (1) 

 The plan is feasible only where more or less intensive 

 and centralized plantings occur. While instances have 

 been cited when fruit has been successfully hauled twenty 

 miles to a communuity packing-house, it seems highly 

 important that sufficient fruit be obtained within a radius 

 of about four miles. Twelve miles, over good roads, is 

 given as the maximum haul in the Pacific Northwest. 

 (2) One hundred cars is usually considered the minimum 

 which can be handled through a community packing-house 

 with the greatest economy. (3) Community packing- 

 houses should, scarcely without exception, be situated on a 

 railroad. (4) There must be a community spirit and 



