HANDLING DECIDUOUS FRUITS ON PACIFIC COAST 
the Atlantic seaboard and adjacent states 
for a market. The fruit has to be trans- 
ported 3,000 mules, crossing lofty moun- 
tain ranges and hundreds of miles of des- 
ert, to the cities and centers of popula- 
tion of the East and Central West. Great 
engineering problems have had to be 
solved in accomplishing this result. It is 
stated that in crossing the continent a car 
has actually to be lifted or raised a ver- 
tical distance of more than two mules. 
Upon the safety, efficiency and despatch 
of the transportation facilities depends 
the whole success of the fresh-fruit in- 
dustry of the Pacific coast. The perish- 
able nature of the product and the diffi- 
culty in handling such an industry 3,000 
miles from the center of consumption 
have made it necessary to develop an 
ample and efficient fruit-refrigerator-car 
service, which is now admitted to be the 
largest and best of its kind in the world. 
The distance which the fruit has to be 
transported and the expense and risk in- 
volved necessarily require that the fruit 
reach the market in the best possible con- 
dition. This has enforced a degree of uni- 
formity in grading and packing which, to- 
gether with the high shipping qualities of 
the Western fruits, is largely responsible 
for the successful marketing of the Pa- 
cific-coast product in competition with the 
Eastern fruits produced near the markets, 
but which, taken as a whole, are not as 
attractively or uniformly packed. The 
diffficulties and the expense of shipping 
and marketing the Pacific-coast fruits to 
some extent safeguard the grower against 
the temptation that confronts the Hastern 
grower with nearby markets and lower 
freight rates, to attempt to market large 
quantities of inferior, badly graded, and 
poorly packed fruit. 
It must not be assumed that no poor 
packing is done and that no poor-grade 
fruit is shipped from the Pacific coast. In 
fact, much of the Western fruit has the 
reputation of being poor in quality, 
though often beautiful in color and fine 
in appearance. This reputation has not 
militated to any great extent against the 
sale of Western fruit, owing to the fact 
that the consumer has thus far bought 
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fruit products principally on appearance. 
But as competition grows keener and as 
high-grade fruit from nearby sections 
comes to be more carefully and attractive- 
ly packed so as to reach the market in 
sound condition, fruit of poor quality will 
suffer. The poor quality of some of the 
Western fruit, especially the peaches, 
apricots, plums, and other quick-ripen- 
ing fruits, is the result of picking long 
before the fruit reaches full maturity in 
order to protect it against the ripening 
which takes place during the transcon- 
tinental trip. After fruit is picked the 
ripening processes progress much more 
rapidly than they do under the same con- 
ditions of temperature while the fruit is 
on the tree. Unless some means are em- 
ployed to check this ripening as soon as 
harvested the fruit is too far advanced, 
even under the present method of re- 
frigerator-car shipment, before it reaches 
the market. 
Handling, Packing and Marketing 
The deciduous fruits are produced un- 
der the most diverse conditions—in the 
valleys, in the foothill and mountain dis- 
tricts, under irrigation, and with natural 
methods of tillage. Under such varying 
and extreme conditions the product 
varies in quality and appearance as well 
as in season It is owing to this divers- 
ity in the conditions of production that 
the problems of deciduous-fruit handling 
and of marketing have not been system- 
atized and organized as they have been 
in the citrus-fruit industry. The citrus- 
fruit industry is largely organized into 
associations of growers. The fruit of the 
different growers is uniformly graded and 
packed in central packing houses owned 
by the association, each packing house 
having its own brands to designate the 
different grades. The fruit is not shipped 
under the name of the grower who pro- 
duces it, as all of the fruit of the same 
grade is pooled. Many of the associations 
of growers also pick and haul the fruit 
of the members to the packing house. 
They have developed trained gangs of 
pickers and other laborers who work un- 
der efficient foremen, and they, more 
than those engaged in any other agricul- 
