1905.] 



Apple Culture. 



589 



the trees, should be removed. When the thinning process is 

 completed there should be room for a man to move freely be- 

 tween the main boughs. The trees should be thoroughly- 

 sprayed in February with the caustic winter dressing previously 

 advised. 



Packing and Grading the Fruit* 

 The fruit of the early kinds should be picked before they are 

 quite ripe. They are not so liable to bruise in transit then as 

 when quite ripe, and, moreover, they will ripen quickly when 

 enclosed in the packages on the way from the grower to their 

 destination ; whereas, if allowed to become quite ripe, they 

 would be more soft, and would bruise far more freely in transit. 

 The later kinds, that are to be stored, should be allowed to 

 mature, or they will shrivel after they are picked. 



The fruit is generally packed in bushel and half-bushel 

 baskets, while some of the more up-to-date growers use small 

 barrels. These are better than baskets, as the insides being 

 smooth, the fruit does not bruise so freely. For the choicer 

 dessert kinds light boxes may be used, in which case the lids 

 should be fixed and placed downwards. The fruit should then 

 be placed evenly upon what is then the lower part of the box, 

 finishing at the top — which, when the remaining wood is 

 nailed on and the box reversed, proves to be the bottom. The 

 lid, which was originally the bottom of the box, is then at the 

 top, and when removed exposes the carefully placed fruit to the 

 eye of the purchaser. The boxes should be properly branded 

 at the ends. 



All fruit when packed should be carefully graded and sorted, 

 so that only those of an even, uniform size are packed together. 

 At least two sizes should be made from each bulk. Mixed 

 fruit of various sizes is practically unsaleable, more particularly 

 as the foreign supplies are so very carefully sorted as to size. 



Storing. 



For preserving late kinds until selling time a suitable store- 

 house must be erected. Fruit will keep no better in elaborate 

 expensive buildings than it will in an inexpensive building of 



* Information as to the grading and packing of fruit and vegetables is given in 

 Leaflet No. 98. 



