20 BULLETIN 1416, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Although many growers are provided with power sizing machines, 
the tendency is to take the crop from the orchard to the dealer’s 
or association’s packing plant. eee the causes of this trend is 
the lack of sufficient skilled help on the farms, the increasing demand 
for a uniform standardized pack, and the need of full equipment for 
rapid, close grading into the several sizes often desired. The use 
of the more fully equipped packing houses is general for the largest 
orchard enterprises, especially in the Potomac-Shenandoah-Cumber- 
land Valley and in western New York, but less so in the Middle 
West, in eastern New York, and in New England. Many cooperative 
enterprises carry on a packing-house system. ‘The plan favors the 
use of good equipment and promotes thorough, efficient grading and 
packing. 
Fic. 9.—This large Maryland packing plant is exceptionally well lighted 
THE PACKING-HOUSE SYSTEM 
As it handles large quantities by uniform methods, the packing- 
house system promotes better packing. The larger houses are 
equipped at least with sorting tables and sizing machines with a 
conveyor belt and sizing rings, or corrugated rollers, which drop 
out the fruit according to size. Figure 9 shows an exceptionally 
well-planned and well-equipped packing house in the southeastern 
region. 
The fruit from the orchard is unloaded on the receiving floor 
close to a roller conveyor leading to the feeding belt of a sizing 
machine. As the fruit moves along, sorters pick out the culls and 
the No. 2’s, placing them in baskets. The No: 1 stock passes on 
and is sized by the machine, usually into two sizes, but sometimes 
into a number of additional sizes. The export trade provides a 
welcome outlet for the small sizes. Many packers put up a 2-inch 
size for this purpose, besides the regular 214 and 2% inch and larger 
sizes. Some growers also sort the No. 2 or B grade into various 
sizes, passing 1t through the machine separately, or they use a double 
