THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
173 
region and that state in our efforts to develop the fruit industry of tjhe 
Central West We have always looked upon Cornell as a special factor oft 
inspiration in the development of the western fruit industry. I am glad we 
have with us today Prof. C. S'. Wilson, pomologist at COrneill University, 
New York, to tell us about the “Better methods of grading and packing 
apples.” 
THE BETTER GRADING AND PACKING OF APPLES. 
C. S. Wilson, New York. 
The grading and packing of apples is an exceedingly important ques- 
tion at the present time. The Eastern growers are beginning to realize 
that the time has come to improve, if not wholly to reconstruct, the methods 
of grading and packing. The success of the Western growers with the box 
package has been brought forcibly to our attention. The compliance of 
the Canadian growers on the north to the rifles and regulations of the Fruit 
Marks Act has met with considerable success. The enormous planting of 
apple trees all over this country promises large crops in the near future, 
and we are asking ourselves the question, “Will overproduction make apple 
growing unprofitable?” We all realize the necessity of immediate and 
marked improvement in our methods ofl grading and packing. 
Let us recall our present practice. For the apple, we may say that there are 
two commercial packages, the barrel and the box. Practice has defined 
fairly well the method of packing for each. Our discussion, however, will 
be confined to the barrel only, because this is the package used most widely 
in the East and because the methods of packing for the box are already well 
developed. 
In spite of criticisms the barrel and our methods of packing it, remain 
almost unchanged. We recognize two grades — firsts and seconds. Com- 
monly, we designate a first grade pack as one in which the specimens are 
hand picked, good color for the variety, etc., and as regards size, two and 
one-half inches or above in diameter. The barrel is faced and tailed and 
the apples for this service are placed in concentric rings, either one layer 
or two layers at the ends of the barrel. It is the pack that is hailed as dis- 
honest by the consumer and for two reasons: First, because the face speci- 
mens are much better than the average for the entire barrel^ and second, 
because the center of the barrel has often contained inferior fruit. Our 
old joke about the fruit in the center of the barrel has probably been carried 
too far, but I think we all recognize some truth in the statement. It is often 
a fact that inferior apples do find their way into the package and that some 
how or another these seem to gravitate to the center of the barrel. The 
main reason for the difference in price, bulk for bulk, of eastebp fruit and 
western fruit is not, as is commonly supposed, a better package, but is pri- 
marily better grading and packing. 
