HOW TO GROW FRUIT. 
713 
HOW TO UTILISE AND MARKET FRUIT. 
Having now shown how to plant, what to plant, and how to look 
after an orchard when planted, I now come to the important question 
of what to do with our fruit when grown, so that it will produce the 
best results. In order to do this I will start with the marketing of 
fresh fruit, and will try and show how the present method of market- 
ing fruit can be greatly improved. It does not take an expert to see 
that the manner in which fruit-growers get up their produce for 
market is capable of being greatly improved upon, as the condition in 
which a large quantity of our fruit is sent to market, and the manner 
in which it is sent, is a disgrace to Australia. 
In many cases not the slightest attempt is made to pack the fruit ; 
and even where a certain amount of packing is done, the grading of 
the fruit is often very indifferent, the case having a layer or two of 
fine fruit on the top and rubbish in the bottom. In some instances, 
however, big, small, ripe, over-ripe, under-ripe, clean, and diseased 
fruit are all mixed together, the case well shaken to settle the fruit, 
and the lid then fastened down, and, in addition, the case, to say the 
least, is usually a very unattractive and often very dirty one ; and 
still the fruit-grower wonders that he gets a bad price for his produce, 
blames everyone except himself, says that fruit-growing is done, and 
there is no longer any money in it. 
In order for fruit to sell well it must always be shown to the 
greatest advantage, and this can only be done by careful picking, 
handling, grading, and packing, and the use of clean, neat cases. 
Handle the fruit carefully ; a bruised fruit is a spoilt fruit, and 
will spoil the sale of a case, tirade evenly, and never pack big and 
small fruits in the same case. Pack honestly ; let the top of the case 
be no better than the bottom, but let the fruit be of an even quality 
throughout. Pack firmly, and discard all blemished or diseased fruit ; 
they only spoil the sale of the good. If the fruit is of extra quality, 
or has to he sent a considerable distance to market, or is intended 
for export, always wrap it ; a tough, soft paper being the best to 
use — Japanese papers, made from bamboo fibre, being the best that 
1 know. 
Many growers will no doubt say that it will not pay to go to all 
this expense, but I can assure them that it will pay, and pay well, as 
fruit properly graded and honestly packed will meet a ready sale in 
any market. In order to bear out this statement I rnay say that it is 
the experience of the great fruit-packing firms in California that 
the better you get your fruit up for sale, and the more attractive it is, 
the better it will sell. The large orange-packing bouses of Riverside, 
California, consider that it costs 2s. to put up a case of oranges pro- 
perly. This price includes the cost of cutting, grading, wrapping, and 
packing, as well as that of the case and the lithos on the case ; and 
they find that it pays them much better to pack in this manner than 
to put the fruit on the market in a less attractive form, as the extra 
price realised more than compensates for the extra expense of packing, 
and in addition the fruit is more readily sold. What applies in Cali- 
fornia applies with equal force here, as there is never any difficulty in 
disposing of attractively got up fruit in our own markets ; and in the 
