6o FRUIT HARVESTING, STORING, MARKETING 



sorted his product into two grades, and sold the first 

 grade — something over half the crop — at twenty cents 

 a quart, and the second grade at ten cents. This left 

 him a handsome margin for his sorting. 



I. THE PRACTICE OF GRADING 



Most fruit is practically unsaleable without sorting, 

 and the better it is sorted the better it sells. 



Frequently the sorting of fruit consists merely in 

 removing unmarketable specimens. It is seldom prac- 

 ticable to divide a picking of strawberries, berry by 

 berry, into two grades, as my student friend did it, 

 and I never knew of blackberries or gooseberries 

 being picked over by hand in that way. Bad speci- 

 mens should always be removed, however, and the 

 best way to do this is not to pick them. 



Grapes are generally sorted (at least, for the better 

 class of trade), the work being done in the packing 

 shed when the fruit is put into the baskets. A pair 

 of slim scissors, made for the purpose, is used, and all 

 bad or broken berries are trimmed out. 



Most fruits which are handled on a large scale, 

 such as apples, pears, peaches, oranges, etc. , are sub- 

 jected to a more complicated process of grading. Two 

 or three, or even four or five, grades are made from 

 the crop from the same trees. It is customary to 

 divide apples, for example, into first grade (often 

 called " selects "),• second grade (usually called 

 "firsts," "XX," or even "XXX,"), and culls 

 (which in years of scarcity go to market as "sec- 

 onds"). 



