306 



THE GARDEN AND FIELD. 



December, 19]S 



# Packing Apples. # 



tapes are obvious. Light and air 

 is kept out of the centre of the 

 tree ; it makes your trees look un- 

 sig^htly ; and double work is en- 

 tailed, as the tree must afterwards 

 l)e pone ovex to remove the frac- 

 tured shoots. 



The time for summer pruning 

 depends on the climate, the soil, 

 the varietv, and verv often the in- 

 dividual characteristics of the tree, 

 so that it is hard to state th^e 

 exact time to begin. 



Summer i)runinir comprises se. 

 veral varied but related'operations, 

 such as disbudding or rubbing off 

 unnecessary buds, which is done 

 in early spring as the shoots are 

 bursting, and if necessary con- 

 tinued during the summer. An im- 

 mense amount of good mav be 

 done by alert orchardists in the 

 eration of disbudding. It is better 

 to prevent unnecessary growth at 

 the start by rubbing off the shoots 

 than by cutting these off after- 

 wards. A walk through his or- 

 chard in early spring will enable 

 the fruitgrawer to eliminate these 

 buds where .shoots are not re- 

 quired. 



The objects of summer pruning 

 are : — 



1. To regulate the growth of the 

 tree and suppress superlluous 

 shoots and branches. 



2. To maintain a proper balance 

 of the "tree by retarding the 

 growth of the strong shoots and 

 so deviate the sap to the weaker 

 growth. 



3. To induce the formation of 

 fruit spurs exactly where they are 

 best placed — that- is, on the under 

 part of the tree. 



In young trees the principles of 

 summer pruning are restricted to 

 dis1)udding and regulating the 

 growth,' and in the case of older 

 trees to promote fruitfulness. To 

 J) roper Iv shape a young tree the 

 best instruments are always with 

 vou — viz., finger and thum.b. 



C. A. SMITH & CO. 



ENGINKRRS, 

 WAKE-FIKLn STRKRT 

 ADELAIDE 

 fOpp. Gawler Place). 



Sole Makers of the 

 " DON " Centrifugal and Double 

 Action Pumps, Horizontal and 

 Vertical. 



The best on the market. Repairs 

 to all kinds of Machinery. 



'Phone 766. 



{By E. Meeking. Senior Fruit Inspector. 

 Victoria.) 



— A Plea for the Introduction of the 

 Diagonal-Numerical System of Pack- 

 ing .\pples. — 



The old adage "Show me a man's 

 friends, and I'll tell you his character" 

 may well be transposed for application 

 in a business sense by saying, "Show me 

 a man's goods and I'll judge his com- 

 mercial status." This is particularly the 

 case in an industry such as our over- 

 sea fruit export ' trade, in which our 

 fruits are consigned to markets at the 

 other end of the world, and where the 

 buyer (who seldom or never comes in- 

 to personal contact with the producer 

 or seller) has no standard whereunder 

 he may judge the commercial standing 

 of the latter except by the general ap- 

 pearance and quality of his wares. The 

 contention often quoted by many of our 

 exporters, that buyers on the London 

 and Continental markets take no note 

 of the appearance and make-up of the 

 packages enclosing our fruits, but that 

 these solely judge the fruits on their 

 own merits, is not altogether correct. 

 Packages encasing commodities such as 

 fresh fruits which are sold in their ori- 

 ginal containers are, from a marketing 

 point of view, part and parcel of the 

 goods themselves, and the attractiveness, 

 or otherwise, of the packages may 

 rightly be considered as having a great 

 influence on the mind of the buyer — in 

 short, to lie a factor of prime import- 

 ance in determining the value of th' 

 goods. Fruits carefully graded wif'i 

 regard to size, color, and general quality, 

 put up in distinctive and attractive paCK- 

 ages, and branded with grade marks, in 

 a sense, sell themselves, as they save 

 the agent and ljuyer an infinite amount 

 of troul)le in determining their value. 

 Of course, bad fruit cannot be expected 

 to realise high prices, even if enclosed 

 in good packages, but, all other things 

 being equal, there is little doubt that 

 consignments put up in attractive man- 

 ner will realise better prices than will 

 consignments where such has been neg- 

 lected. 



The object is to show that up to now 

 sufficient consideration has not been 

 given by our exporters to this aspect of 

 the subject, nor, also, to the fact that 

 the introduction of new and improved 

 methods, both in the style of package 

 used and in the manner in which our 

 fruits are packed, is of urgent necessity 



if we wish to maintain the position we 

 have already estaldished in connexion 

 with our oversea fruit export industry 

 on the London and Continental markets. 

 It is intended to further show that the 

 best means whereby this desirable end 

 may he attained will he by the general 

 adoption of the so-called numerical sys- 

 tem of packing fruit. 



—History of Numerical Packing. — 



This system originated some years 

 ago in California in connection with the 

 packing of oranges for transport over 

 long distances. The pack, which was 

 termed the "diagonal pack," was not at 

 first instituted with the idea of adopt- 

 ing a numerical standard, but was used 

 because it furnished the best system of 

 putting up fruits with the maximum of 

 tightness combined with a minimum of 

 bruising. It was later discovered that, 

 in order t(T put up fruits of various 

 grades, a numerical system of packing- 

 could be applied under the diagonal 

 pack. After California had been pack- 

 ing for some time under the numerical 

 the system gradually spread through the 

 Western States of the United States and 

 Canada, being voluntarily adopted by 

 the growers themselves, and its superior- 

 ity over the older methods is now so 

 universally acknowledged that it has 

 been made the subject of legislation 

 within the past three or four years in 

 Ijoth countries of the American Conti- 

 nent. 



— Capacity Standards and Numerical 

 Standards Contrasted. — 

 In this country an attempt has been 

 made to protect the purchaser by the 

 passage through the Legislature in 1906 

 of the Fruit Cases Act. Under this 

 measure, cases of various sizes based 

 upon the imperial bushel standard have 

 been adopted. In order' to suit the 

 packing of different varieties of fruits, 

 and also to meet the varying require- 

 ments of the local, inter-State, and over- 

 sea export trades, these packages vary 

 in shapes as well as measurements ; but 

 the cubical capacities of all cases have 

 been fixed to provide that, as nearly as 

 possible, these shall contain, by mea- 

 surement, either two Inishels, one bus- 

 hel, or one-half bushel of fruit as 

 may be required. Although these stan- 

 dards l)y measurement are a great ad- 

 vance on the old haphazard methods of 

 putting up fruits in any sized packages, 

 and although they have proved of much 

 benefit to the trade by suppressing, or, 

 at least, lessening the dishonest prac- 



