GRADING, PACKING, AND MARKETING FRUIT. 



177 



and small Peaches increases every year, and the result cannot 

 possibly be satisfactory. I ought also to add that we think 

 wood-wool a very unsuitable material for packing Peaches. 



Forced Strawberries still come in the flat punnets of ^ lb. 

 or 1 lb., the old pottle being quite lost sight of, but with increas- 

 ing quantity growers find it pays best to sort into two or three 

 sizes, and by having uniform boxes containing so many punnets 

 it simplifies the sale very much ; and when you consider that 

 we have to handle from half a ton to a ton of forced fruit 

 between 8 and 11 in the morning, you will see that every facility 

 or quick sale is necessary. 



Cucumbers used to come in punnets of six each, -or all sizes 

 of boxes, but now in hampers containing two to three dozen 

 each, and it is no exaggeration to say there are sometimes up- 

 wards of 2,000 hampers received in Covent Garden Market daily 

 from March to July. 



Tomatos were scarcely known on the market twenty years 

 ago, but the supply now is simply enormous, those grown near 

 London being packed in "strikes "or pecks, each containing 12 lbs. 

 The best growers grade into three or four sizes, so that each 

 " strike " contains as nearly as possible one uniform size ; those 

 coining by rail are packed in handle baskets. The baskets 

 should always be lined with paper, and the stalks cut off quite 

 close to the fruit, in order to prevent them wounding one 

 another. 



The above comprise the staple market fruits grown under 

 glass, and I wish you especially to note that we have year by 

 year continually improved on the packing and grading of each. 

 We will now turn to outdoor fruits, and I will take them in 

 rotation as they ripen. 51 



Strawberries are sent in punnets from the smaller, and in 

 pecks from the larger growers, and I do not think we can improve 

 on the Kent method of a box containing sixty upright punnets 

 each. The pecks also are suitable, as the softness of the 

 fruit requires plenty of ventilation. In Strawberries we need 

 have no fear of foreign competition. 



Cherries, Currants, and Gooseberries come next, and the 

 peck and the half-bushel used are to my mind the most suitable, 

 as they, too, need ventilation ; at the same time the French are 

 far ahead of us in the neat and stylish way in which they put 



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