370 
These things, then, have been factors 
toward the establishing of growers’ as- 
sociations, not the least function of which 
is to maintain the standards of grade and 
pack. The methods by which the associa- 
tions have gone about accomplishing this 
end have been, generally speaking, two, 
inspection and direct management:  In- 
spection, when it takes the exclusive form 
of examination of the product after it 
is packed ready for market, is rarely an 
entire success, Deing a corrective rather 
than a preventive measure. Where the 
inspector visits the packing house of the 
various growers, examining the sorted 
apples before they are packed and giving 
instructions’ where necessary, the case is 
a step in advance. Although here the 
workers are responsible to the: grower, 
and after the inspector leaves may re- 
ceive conflicting orders from their em- 
ployer. The best system for securing the 
desired result is now conceded to be one 
in which the selling agency takes entire 
charge of grading and packing the fruit, 
the workers being responsible only to the 
agency. This system is carried on under 
two forms, one where the fruit is graded 
and packed in the packing house of the 
grower, but with a foreman and crew em- 
ployed and furnished by the dealer or as- 
sociation (perhaps the grower not being 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
allowed even to help in the work), the 
other where the work is done in the ware- 
house of the agency, or in a building built 
and equipped by it especially for use as 
a packing house, and;with a force like- 
wise responsible only to the management 
of the agency. An example of an associa- 
tion operating successfully under the first 
form is the Hood River Apple Growers’ 
Union, of Hood River, Oregon; an exam- 
ple of one operating under the second 
form, the North Fork Fruit Growers’ As- 
sociation of Paonia, Colorado. This lat- 
ter maintains several packing plants con- 
veniently located throughout the district, 
also temporary camps for accommo- 
dating the employees. Several associa- 
tions throughout the Northwest practice 
more than one system, maintaining a 
packing department for the benefit of 
those who for any reason do not wish to 
pack at their orchards. The central pack- 
ing house is especially adapted to a com- 
munity of small orchards, where none of 
the growers can afford singly an adequate 
house and system for handling the crop. 
The object sought in the management of 
the packing house, whether private or co- 
operative, is a perfect product at a mini- 
mum cost. A most important, though 
difficult, fact which the apple growers of 
the Northwest have had to learn, is that 
Fig. 39. 
Pear Pack. 
—Courtesy Rogue River Valley Fruit Growers’ Union. 
