FRUIT -SPRAYING. 



189 



can be safely and securely pressed. Boxes, too, can be fastened 

 easily ; they can, moreover, be made cheaply enough to be given 

 away with valuable fruit, on the supposition that it pays to spend 

 25 per cent, of the gross return on packing and freight. This 

 last supposition I accept unreservedly, in the belief that by no 

 other means can foreign competition be defeated. The propor- 

 tion, I imagine, would not seem extravagant to foreign growers. 



As the Apples were brought into the fruit-room they were 

 sorted into three grades, of which the medium and most nume- 

 rous size ran on the average eighteen fruits to 5 lb. in weight. 

 It is this relation of number to weight which is the basis of my 

 packing and marketing. The box which I found cheapest to 

 buy and most convenient to sell, when dealing with dessert fruit, 

 is a shallow one with wire hinges, which holds eighteen Apples 

 weighing 5 lbs., when they are set on their bases. It will also 

 hold twenty-eight Apples of the third grade when they are set on 

 their sides ; and these, too, weigh 5 lbs. or a trifle more. The 

 first grade includes all those Apples which are too large to be 

 packed properly in a 5 lb. box, and which are fine enough to sell 

 by the dozen. The packing material employed is wood wool, a 

 layer of which is placed at the bottom of each box. The Apples 

 are then placed on it, partially wrapped in slips of pink paper, 

 which cover the fruit as far as the sides come in contact with one 

 another. The paper slips, therefore, help to prevent the Apples 

 bruising one another, and also enhance the colouring. Finally, 

 another layer of wood wool is placed on the top of the fruit, so 

 as to fill up the box quite tightly, when the hinged lid is tied 

 down as firmly as possible with a single string. It is important 

 to remember that both the boxes and the wood wool must be 

 made of white or non-resinous woods. All the boxes are marked 

 by stencil plates with the grower's mark and the name of the 

 fruit, and they are tied up in bundles of five for travelling. 



Now, not only are the Apples so securely packed by this 

 method that they will remain for weeks in their boxes without 

 damage, but the article of commerce thus produced admits of 

 such exact definition that agreements to buy and sell can be 

 entered into between the grower and retailers without the help 

 of any market or salesmen. At first, negotiation must be 

 based on a sample box; afterwards, variations as to weight, 

 colour, ripeness, and blemishes can be specified in words. 



