377 
* + tration is found very convenient. The fruit can then be carefully 
tipped into the picking cases—kerosene cases bound with light hoop- 
iron last for that purpose for years. 
Unless sufficiently experienced, apple pickers should be pro- 
vided with rings, and no fruit, especially for the early boats, should 
be pulled under 21% inches, unless it is not likely to fill out more. 
Fruit picked before the right stage is reached often shrivel, 
and do not ripen; on the other hand if exported when over-ripe, 
blemished or diseased, nothing but loss need be anticipated. 
GRADING. 
The farther the orchard is away from market, the greater the 
need of bestowing on picking and packing fruits the attention it 
deserves, The wants of the local markets are in a manner under- 
stood and complied with by most growers; but commercial fruit- 
growing, which generally means shipping to long distances and 
necessitate numerous and at times rough handling, must be known 
and studied. 
However carefully the frait has been picked, it is essential, in 
order to secure top market price, to grade it. This is best done by 
hand, as most mechanical graders advertised are only suitable for 
sorting out potatoes or second-class hard fruit, or for grading dried 
fruit. . 
A definition of what constitutes “first-class fruit” will prove 
instructive to growers. A perfect specimen is not necessarily 
first-cla:s fruit. First-class fruit as understood in the market 
is a parcel of fruit of one variety, full grown, well-coloured, 
without blemish due to insect or fungoid blight, carefully picked, 
all of as near as possible one size, shape, degree of ripeness, 
got up in neat and appropriate packages, showing no shrinkage, 
and correctly labelled. Some growers sort out their fruit into 
three or even four grades, such as “extras” or “selected,” “fancy,” 
and “first-class” and “culls.” In that case the term second-class 
or No. 2 is often substituted for the term “culls.” 
These names are preferred by some fruit dealers to the 
numerical descriptions representing the quality of fruit, as although 
No. 2 grade may, for all purposes, be almost as good as No. 1, yet 
many object to appear dealing in any commodity which is not first 
class. On the other hand, those fancy names described above do not 
convey any very clear and definite idea of the standard which directs 
their classification, and what appears “extra” or “fancy” to one 
dealer may not fill another dealer’s ideal. 
Of fruit graders a number of types are found in the market, 
but they are all constructed on the same principle, and the above 
diagram illustrates an easily constructed home-made grader, which 
