430 



Grading and Packing Apples. 



[Aug., 



several forms of package hoary with antiquity — forms which 

 the ardent reformer, hasty for the attainment of the ideal, 

 might have rejected. 



Net Weight or Count. — The scheme to succeed has to meet 

 the grievance of the retailer as to the honesty of the fruit, and 

 especially so as regards the count or weight of apples in the 

 package. For " Special Dessert " the number is more 

 important than weight, and the count must be stated. For 

 boxes of dessert or culinary apples either the count or net 

 weight (or minimum net weight) gives the needed informa- 

 tion, and according to the scheme the grower may decide 

 which to declare. For half-bushels, bushels, barrels, half- 

 barrels, and bonnets, &c., net weight, or rather the minimum 

 net weight has to be declared. Few will take offence or object 

 to this, for it is now generally realised that the buyer of fruit 

 is entitled to know the weight that he is purchasing. 



In conclusion, it should be stated that this voluntary scheme 

 drawn up by the Federation of British Growers and approved 

 of by the Committee representative of the horticultural 

 industry, has adopted novel methods of classification jt grad- 

 ing, and established a peculiarly high and fixed standard of 

 quality for all grades of apples. The scheme is to be launched 

 by the Federation of British Growers, and experience in work- 

 ing the scheme will indicate where modifications can be made. 

 It has received the general support of the Ministry, and is 

 earnestly commended to British fruit growers as the first step 

 in the direction which the packing and marketing of all classes 

 and kinds of vegetable produce, as well as fruit, must take 

 (iWf the legitimate demands of a discriminating public are not 

 to be met by imported produce only ; (2) if the reasonable require- 

 ment of the retail distributor, that he shall be able to buy on 

 something akin to the same basis on which he must sell, is to be 

 met, and (8) finally, if British growers are not to be relegated 

 into the wilderness of economic failure by the men who will 

 organise upon business lines and adopt the new methods. 



This scheme is purely voluntary, and will in no way 

 interfere with, though it may exercise an influence upon, the 

 marketing of produce of lower grades than those stated in the 

 scheme. 



