L9'22.] 



THE CtRADINO AND ttlZINd OF Al'l'UES. 



427 



THE GRADING AND SIZING OF 

 APPLES. 



J. TURNBULL, 



Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. 



Whatever opinion may be held as to the best package for 

 marketing apples, it is generally agreed that better grading and 

 packing are necessary. Good methods of packing have fre- 

 quently been described, but little has been said about grading 

 methods. Some confusion is caused because the word grading 

 is used indiscriminately to mean sorting for quality or sorting 

 for size. It would greatly simplify discussion if the latter were 

 described as sizing and the use of the word grading were limited 

 to grading for quality. 



Grading (for Quality) must be done by eye, as, al present 

 at any rate, no machine can tell the difference between green 

 and red apples, or between clean and blemished fruit. There are 

 two occasions on which it is convenient to grade — the first at 

 the time of picking and the second at the time of packing — and 

 advantage should be taken of both. 



It is always good practice for a certain amount of grading to 

 be done at the time of picking. Objection is taken to this on 

 the ground that pickers are incapable of distinguishing between 

 clean and blemished fruit. Such pickers should never be em- 

 ployed, as they will ruin the fruit in any case. It may not 

 show for a few T days perhaps, but the damage will be there. The 

 pickers should collect only sound fruit reasonably free from 

 blemishes. All seriously blemished fruit, jam apples, scrumps. 

 and mummies should therefore be dropped on the ground near 

 the foot of the tree. Care should be taken to see that the mum- 

 mies are buried or burned. The others should be picked up and 

 used or marketed as soon as possible. 



When the crop is reasonably clean and is being marketed 

 direct from the tree in wickers or half-barrels, it is usually 

 graded and sized by hand by the packer, who places the fruit 

 directly into the proper packages. When the bulk of the fruit 

 is of one grade and size, the packer can run it through his hands 

 into the baskets, picking out the other grades and sizes as he 

 does so. When, however, there is a large bulk of two or more 

 grades or sizes, it is better to run the fruit carefully on to a 

 sorting table and pack from that. ! A sorting table is simply a 

 small table with a top of stout canvas instead of wood.) 



