130 FRUIT FARMING 



that cheap wooden boxes, not returnable, must 

 eventually come into use. This plan was approved at 

 the Fruit Conference, but the smaller buyers (costers, 

 etc.) cling to the old custom. 



In making- up soft fruits care should be taken to 

 pick out the leaves, also that the samples are made 

 fairly even, as if a quantity of one growth is " pitched" 

 in the market, and the buyer happens to open baskets 

 below the sample, the average value of the lot is 

 lowered at once. Any bruised and speckled Plums 

 should be thrown out, special care should be taken in 

 packing Apples and Pears ; to make the bulk as even 

 as possible, it pays to exclude all inferior examples. 

 Cherries are packed in the same way as small fruit, 

 very choice or early fruit being sent in quarter-sieves 

 (pecks). In the case of Morellos, they sell best in 

 small shallow boxes, two layers only being placed in 

 each, and the nett weight of the fruit should be put 

 inside each box on a piece of paper. All salesmen 

 will supply baskets and boxes, and this mode is 

 recommended, as the loss, if growers find their own, 

 is heavy ; there seems to be no recovering any that 

 are once missed. Care must be taken to get a large 

 number ready before picking commences, and to keep 

 up a home supply, otherwise picking niav be delayed 

 for a day or two in a critical time. Strawberries are, 

 when large, packed in flat or upright chip punnets, 

 holding ^-Ib. or i-lb, whicli the salesmen supply at a 

 cheap rate (5/- to 8/- per gross). If the punnets are 

 lined with fresh strawberry leaves, it gives the fruit 

 a better appearance. fhe "King" .Strawberries— the 

 first extra sized fruit make good prices in punnets of 

 12 fruits, and later on baskets of four and six pounds. 



