APPLES 
preaking of a large limb trom the top, in 
August The apples have averaged me $2 
per barrel.” 
G. C. MILLER, 
Middleton, N. &S 
POINTS ON PACKING AND HANDLING 
APPLES IN BARRELS 
G. H. Vroom 
Dominion Fruit Inspector 
Middleton, Nova Scotia 
In compliance with your request to 
write something touching the apple indus- 
try in the Province of Nova Scotia, I beg 
to submit the following: 
First, and very important in packing 
and marketing fruit, is a good, well made 
package. The staves in a barrel should 
be so made that when the barrel is fin- 
ished it will be 1814 inches in the bilge, 
inside measurement. These staves should 
pe thoroughly dried before using or mak: 
ing up into barrels. Spruce is the best 
wood for apple barrels, on account of it 
being light to handle, and more durable 
than other kinds of soft wood. Both ends 
of an apple barrel should be planed, and 
should be made of spruce wood, five- 
eighths of an inch thick, and cut large 
enough to give a 17-inch inside measure- 
ment to the head, when the barrel is fin- 
ished. Hoops may be either flat or half 
round. A split half-round hoop made of 
birch or any other tough, hard wood, will 
stand more handling than a flat one, but 
does not give the barrel so good a finish. 
I think it would be a great advantage if 
eight hoops were put on a barrel instead 
of six. All barrels used for packing 
apples should be thoroughly and properly 
nailed before the fruit is packed in them, 
except the bottom, which should be well 
nailed after the barrel has been closed up. 
Care should be taken that the nails enter 
the head, and not go under it, as is very 
often the case, and if the barrel gets a 
fall, or the pressure is heavy on any par- 
ticular barrel when in the sling, while be- 
ing lowered into the ship’s hold, the head 
comes out, and the apples go down among 
the barrels and are wasted. Too much 
care cannot be used in nailing the barrel. 
The proper way is to use small nails and 
liners, the same as used in flour barrels. 
395 
One other important thing is the stencil- 
ing There are still left a few people who 
persist in marking their barrels with pen- 
cil, and in some cases incompletely at 
that, and the package looks badly, or, to 
say the least, has an unfinished appear- 
ance. 
The Inspection and Sale Act reads as 
follows: “Every person who, by himself 
or through the agency of another person, 
packs fruit in a closed package, intended 
for sale, should cause the package to be 
marked in a plain and indelible manner 
in letters not less than half an inch in 
length, before it is taken from the prem- 
ises where it is packed, with the initials 
of his Christian names and his full sur- 
name or, in the case of a firm or corpo- 
ration, with the firm or corporate name 
and address, with the name of the variety 
or varieties, and with a designation of 
the grade of fruit, which shall include one 
of the following four marks, viz.: Faney, 
No. 1, No. 2, No. 3. Such mark may be 
accompanied by any other designation of 
grade or brand, if that designation of 
grade or brand is not inconsistent with 
or marked more conspicuously than the 
one of said four marks which is used on 
the said package.” 
Every fruit grower should have a set of 
stencils, so that he will be in a position 
to properly mark his barrels, for by so 
doing he will add to the price in the 
market, and consequently to his bank 
account. 
More care than is generally taken 
should be exercised in handling from or- 
chard to storehouse, A great many grow- 
ers fill their barrels in the orchard, and 
allow them to sit about on the ground 
without the heads in and, if rain hap- 
pens to fall, the apples, as well as the 
barrels, are soaked with water. And 
again, what is nearly as bad, is to head 
the barrels and lay them down on the 
side, scattered over the orchard on the 
cultivated land, and the rain spatters 
mud over them, and by the time the pack- 
ages are stored they look anything but 
attractive, and bring less money on the 
market because they show unmistakable 
signs of carelessness and bad handling. 
