THINNING, GATHERING, KEEPING, MAsfiKETING. 129 



to distant markets should pack them early enough to reach 

 their destination before the softening process has commenced. 

 Large losses have sometimes occurred from bruising and 

 other injury when summer or autumn pears have been sent 

 too late. 



Apples and pears for shipping have sometimes been packed 

 in charcoal dust, dry sand — and at other times separately 

 wrapped in paper, in the same manner as oranges are shipped 

 — but they can be shipped with as much success without any- 

 thing with them, if only managed with care in other respectB. 



In shipping fruit, none but the very best should be sent; 

 all that are small, imperfect, or the least bruised, should be 

 rejected. 



Packing Grapes for Market. — None but well-grown and 

 well-ripened bunches should be taken for this purpose. They 

 should not be picked when wet, and all imperfect berries re- 

 moved from the bunch. They should be allowed to dry 

 twenty-four hours, which lessens their liability to be broken. 

 Grapes are now generally sent to market placed in small 

 wooden baskets containing five and ten pounds each and up- 

 ward — a wooden cover fitting over the top and holding the 

 fruit firmly in place. For immediate consumption some of the 

 finest fruit is packed in wooden baskets without handles and 

 sent to market in crates holding from four to eight baskets. 



Such varieties of the grape as have a tough skin are least 

 injured by long journeys ; while those like the Worden, which 

 are tender, cannot be sent to a distant market without many 

 of ithe berries being broken open, although this liability is 

 somewhat lessened by drying and slightly wilting for a day 

 or two before packing. 



The most successful grape-raisers, after they have selected 

 the best sorts and the best soil, still give assiduous attention 

 to three great points, viz: i. Good and constant cultivation; 

 2. Careful pruning and thinning-out defective fruit ; 3. Care- 

 ful gathering and packing; 4. Attention to spraying. E. M. 

 Bradley, of East Bloomfield, N. Y., a skilful marketer, has 

 kindly furnished the author of this work the following state- 

 ment of his management : 



" Peripit me first to say, that the market value of the grape 

 9 



