154 



Grading of Fruit and Vegetables. 



mushrooms are conspicuous as needing sorting into different 

 grades. The largest (and oldest) should be placed together ; 

 the medium-sized will constitute the best grade ; and the smallest 

 or " buttons " the next, both the latter being usually sent or 

 sold in punnets, and the others in baskets. 



The essential general rules in grading vegetables of all kinds 

 are the following : — I. Exclude all immature, overgrown, coarse, 

 or defective specimens from the leading grades. 2. Make each 

 grade as uniform as possible. 3. Let freshness and fitness for 

 use be the characteristics of all vegetables when consigned to 

 market or consumers. To aid in all this grow only the best 

 varieties obtainable, and watch closely for every real improve- 

 ment on old sorts. 



Packing for Sale, 



Wherever fruits or vegetables have to be transferred a 

 distance by road or rail, the best culture and most careful 

 grading may lose all their value through neglectful packing. 

 That many of the defects in market consignments are either due 

 to this or materially increased thereby the majority of salesmen 

 can confirm, and the complaints on this score are as frequent as 

 those regarding inattention to grading. In dealing with fruits 

 the essentials for success are as follows : — 



1. Use only perfectly sound fruits. 



2. Pack firmly, without crushing. 



3. Use the best elastic odourless materials as packing. 



4. Place all choice and ripe fruits in small quantities and 

 shallow packages. 



In the home trade baskets are much more extensively 

 used than boxes, and the most common are round baskets with- 

 out lids, of the bushel, half-bushel, or half-sieve types. They 

 are strong and durable, but are objectionable for all the best 

 fruits as, even with the most careful packing, the top layers are 

 liable to be bruised, and under the usual careless methods they 

 are certain to be damaged. When apples, pears, plums, 

 cherries, or gooseberries are sent in such baskets a covering 

 of paper, with straw or other material, is placed on the top and 

 secured by cross pieces of willow or hazel, the points of which 

 are forced through the sides of the basket below the rim. Flat 



