CALIFORNIA AVOCADO ASSOCIATION 



167 



actual practice December is the favorite month, because by that time 

 all seedling fruit is practically over with., and the market bare. Mr. Chas. 

 Montgomery, who in 1912 was using a peculiar system of packing with 

 corrugated cardboard and excelsior, is one of our most progressive and 

 experienced shippers. I will here quote a letter just received from him, 

 which gives the result of his later experience in packing and marketing, 

 and contains much interesting information. 



"At whatever date the Trapp avocado seems matured (because it is 

 a late fruit only in the ability of hanging on the tree a long time after 

 it is ripe), I go over the trees very carefully, attempting to inspect 

 every fruit and remove from them whatever fruit will pack 44 or larger 

 that has been rubbed by the limbs or has creases in the side or anything 

 whatever that would lead me to believe that it would be a drop, hence 

 a cull. Within a period of two weeks after I believe the Trapps have 

 reached maturity I remove the fruit that appears to be overripe and 

 that within a period of five days drops and hence would become a cull. 

 I continue this method throughout the season excepting on the trees I 

 reserve for very late fruit. From these trees commercially I stand the 

 loss of drops and culls because normally after you begin removing fruit 

 from the Trapps, you must continue the operation or nature will throw 

 all of them off. I use a bomboo rod on the end of which is a semi-circular 

 wire quite heavy that will not bend with the weight of the fruit. I sew 

 to this wire a piece of canvas that will hold three or four Trapps. At 

 the extremity of this bag I have a section of the same wire bent in a 

 fishhook shape to break the fruit from the tree. I gather all the fruit 

 by hand that can be reached from the ground or six foot ladder. For 

 fruit higher than this I use a pole. This fruit is handled mostly in 

 picking baskets, — occasionally in Wilson picking bag. Each fruit is 

 handled individually. The stem cut smooth with a knife using the 

 same care as for eggs intended for setting purposes. I use a special 

 crate for packing with %-inch board in the center, such as might be 

 used for citrus fruits. The crate in outer dimension is the same as 

 the six basket standard tomato crate. I have the crates made especially. 

 The bottom boards being extra wide, are placed i/4 of an inch apart 

 from the center which would make an opening on each corner of approxi- 

 mately % of an inch. The opening between the slats on the side measure 

 % inch. 



"The top is solid the same as the standard tomato crate. With the 

 exception of the middle board, all of the material in the entire crate is 

 made of gum which is white and gives an attractive appearance. For 

 packing this fruit 36 size use 4-5 4-5 which gives 18 fruit to the side. 

 The four fruit are not packed in the corners. 44 size are packed 

 two in the corner and one in the middle. When I ship three crates to 

 a man I mark each end with his name and address and on the top with 

 a heavy blue pencil "On", placing beneath it a dash and beneath the dash 

 the figure 3. Should it be five packages I would write "On" and beneath 

 it a dash and beneath the dash the figure 5, then the expressman em- 

 ployed as he picks it up sees right away that there are more packages 

 marked to that consignee which will eliminate errors. I have found m 



