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While these regulations would seem to insure that only perfect 
fruit could be exported, the Quality of the exports in recent years, 
hardly bears this out. Comments at the lielgrade prune conference on 
December 12, 1928, freouently referred to the harm done by unscrupulous 
factors in the trade. Well intentioned as these regulations appear, 
there are evidently possibilities for evasion. Present changes, ur^ed 
oy the Export Association, involve fewer markets and fewer Market Com- 
missions to secure better control. Special Commissions under the authority 
of the Market Commissions, giving their entire attention to certifying 
prunes for export are now advocated. 
o-rad in^ and racking Operations 
The practice of grading prunes into sizes is a relatively recent 
development compared with the age ©f the industry itself. The first 
automatic machine for the grading of prunes was invented by a firm in 
Budapest in 1382. Instead of the power driven, mammoth graders of long 
length now in use on' the FaC-ific Coast, the graders in Yugoslavia are 
still very primitive and have not changed materially from the invention 
of 1882. It is best described as a rectangle frame about eight feet 
long, three feet wide and six feet high. Within this frame are sus- 
pended sieves, inclined in opposite directions, the prunes falling through 
from the sieves with the larger openings to the next smaller and so on 
until the very small or "Mercantile" prunes come out at the bottom. The 
number of sieves depends on the number of sizes desired. 
After the prunes have been weighed, inspected and bought by the 
".rune merchant", they are taken to the warehouses for grading. Work- 
men .carry the prunes in baskets to the grader. The plant is singularly 
free of machinery as the ^radin^ machine is operated by hand. The sizes 
graded out are 70/75, 80/85, 95/100, 110/120 and 120/130 and "Mercantile" 
or the very small sizes. The count is based on a 1/2 kilo (1.1 pound), 
which transferred to the American pound would make the corresponding 
sizes one class larger. While gradings formerly might fall anywhere 
between zero and the five point, the tendency now is to grade closer 
to the five point. Thi? is somewhat difficult as graders are not 
supplied with "blending" boards as on the Pacific Coast. 
P aCKi.n^ prune s 
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