1873 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
Packing and Marketing Produce. 
BY J. K. IIELFRICH. 
PEACHES 
For the New York market sent from the vi- 
ciniiy of Charleston and Savannah should be 
pi ke i when dry and then allowed to cool off in 
the siiade before packing. They should then 
be carefully handled, so as not to bruise them, 
and packed in small crates holding about one- 
half bushel, the crates to be made of two 
ends and a middle piece, with slats similar to 
masons’ lath nailed about one-half inch apart 
all around; the ends and middle piece should 
be 13x4, and the lath cut two feet long; there 
should he a piece of lath nailed all around each 
end of the crates to keep them apart during 
shipment to allow of the free circulation of the 
air and escape of the heat. The fruit should 
be not quite ripe when picked, but near enough 
to allow it to ripen by the time it arrives in 
market. If paper is used to wrap the fruit it 
should he of the thinnest kind, such as is gener¬ 
ally used for wrapping oranges, but I have never 
seen any advantage in wrapping peaches. 
Peaches will carry well in the American 
Basket Company’s crate for 32 quarts of straw¬ 
berries using their verbena baskets to bold the 
fruit; the crates hold 16 verbena baskets, each 
basket holding t wo quarts. The crates should 
have corner pieces nailed on them to keep 
them apart when piled together, to allow of a 
circulation of air around them. 
For Virginia and Delaware, use baskets hold¬ 
ing 6 /8 of a bushel, and crates of one and a 
quarter bushel (or two 6 / 8 baskets), also 7 / 8 
crates of three pecks 7 x 14 6 / s or s /. t in. stuff 
covered with lath or slats two feet long. Thc- 
baskets should be well filled and covered with 
a muslin cover. The crates are made of two 
ends and a middle piece of 6 / a or s /, in. wood, 
10 in. wide and 14 in. long, and covered with 
slats or lath */ 4 to 3 / a in. thick, l 1 /* to 4 in. 
wide, and 2 ft, long, leaving about three-quar¬ 
ters of an inch space between the slats. The 
lumber should be planed smooth, and the crates 
neatly made, as neat packages very much help 
the sale of the fruit. Nail lath around each 
end of the crates to keep them apart when pack¬ 
ed in the cars. The inside corners of the slats 
should be beveled off to prevent cutting or bruis¬ 
ing the skin of the fruit in packing and handling. 
Good salesmen take a pride in getting good 
prices for fruit sent to them, but it is impossible 
for them to get as much for fruit, put up in a 
slovenly manner as they can if it is put up pro¬ 
perl y; and shippers will find that they will al- 
ways be well paid for all the trouble they take 
in properly assorting and packing. A great 
part of the fault that is found with the salesman 
is the fault of the shipper himself. One shipper 
will pick the whole of his fruit, pour it into the 
crates without sorting or care of any kind, and 
expect to get as high returns as his neighbor 
who picks carefully, sorts out all soft and small 
fruit, and packs tightly in crates. 
Picking should be done when the fruit is dry, 
and it should be handled carefully. The pick¬ 
ers carry it to the packers, who should have 
clean straw canvas or boards laid on the ground 
upon which to turn out the fruit. The packers 
should be particular to keep out all soft and small 
and gummy peaches, and when the crate is about 
half full they should be well shaken down; 
then fill the crate so that it will need a gentle 
pressure in bringing the slats or cover down to 
their place and nail up. Mark the shipper’s 
name and to whom consigued plainly on the 
end of the crate with a stencil plate. If baskets 
are used, observe the same care in sorting and 
packing; fill them well, and put on muslin 
covers; stencil the covers, and mark shipper’s 
initials on the side of the basket. It is a bad 
plan to top off the baskets much ; they should 
show a fair run all through alike, as shippers’ 
names soon become known in market, either 
for good or bad, according as they put up their 
fruit. Extra choice fruit put in baskets should 
be sprigged or marked by running a twig or 
small limb of a peach-tree through the cover; 
if in crates, mark “extra” on the end. Notify 
by mail or telegraph to your salesman the num¬ 
ber of baskets or crates, and extras if any, 
and how shipped, as soon as shipped, that he 
may know how many packages to look for, 
and facilitate his sales. 
FEAES. 
There is no fruit that will repay the grower 
for his care in picking, selecting, and’packing 
more than pears. The finer varieties should 
be picked a sufficient time before they are ripe 
to allow for the time they are on the way, and 
at least one to three days in market before they 
become fit to use. Pears should be hand-picked, 
and thoroughly sorted; keep out all over-ripe 
and wormy ones, and sort up and pack and 
mark as “firsts ” and “ seconds." For early crops 
from the South,'choice pears, such as Duchess, 
may be wrapped in paper, and packed in flat 
crates holding half a bushel or a bushel. They 
should be laid in closely, and the crates so filled 
as to press down tight with the cover to prevent 
moving in the crates in handling. At the North 
and West pears should be picked and laid in 
heaps at least twenty-four hours to sweat. 
Then pack in clean new barrels or half barrels; 
place a layer of the finest in the barrel, lay 
them on their sides and closely together; then 
partly fill the barrel and shake it down; then 
fill up so that the head will have to be pressed 
down with a screw or lever, that there will be 
no possibility of their moving or rattling in the 
barrel when handled; head and line-hoop, and 
mark the other end with variety and quality, 
shipper’s name, and to whom consigned. 
Cooking or common pears should be packed 
in barrels, and same care used in picking, pack¬ 
ing, and marking. 
The barrels should be tight and new, as any 
barrels that have been used for sugar, salt, or 
flour will cause the fruit to ferment and rot. 
For a near-by market 6 / 8 baskets may be used 
for marketing pears, and the same care taken 
as in packing peaches in baskets. 
---- ► —■ 
Eye for Pasturage and Hay. 
BY A. B. ALLEN. 
From long experience in growing it, I can 
assure your readers that rye, when properly 
cultivated, is one of the most valuable and pro¬ 
bably the most reliable of all our forage crops. 
The reason of its being the most reliable is that 
it makes its growth in autumn and spring,when 
the temperature is congenial, and there is almost 
invariably a sufficiency of rain, which is more 
than can be said for the summer crops. 
Rye, on a moderately dry soil, can be pas¬ 
tured by sheep and young cattle late in autumn 
and early again in spring without injury to it 
when cultivated in the following manner. En¬ 
rich the soil and prepare it as carefully as if for 
wheat. Sow early in September, and put in the 
seed twice as thick as is usually done. By 
such a preparation a quick rank growth is in¬ 
sured, and the stalks being so much closer 
together on the ground they grow up smaller, 
more tender, and more palatable to the animals 
consuming it. 
Early in May rye begins to head, and it is 
then fit for soiling. Later in the month, or early 
in June, when full-headed, but before the grain 
begins to form it can be cut for bay. After 
doing this, we dry it in the sun from seven to 
ten hours, according to the heat, then bind it in 
sheaves of about six inches in diameter, shock 
them in the field for a few days until.there is no 
danger of heat, then stack or store in the barn. 
It is very important not to dry the rye too 
rapidly nor too much, for in this case it loses a 
good share of its fragrance, and becomes more 
difficult of mastication and less palatable to the 
animals consuming it. 
My horses and cattle seem to relish rye thus 
grown and cured as well as they do the best of 
timothy; and so far as I can judge, I think it 
does them as much good as average hay, 
and I should certainly prefer it to much hay 
that is not cut until after the seed is formed. 
It was very dry with us here in New Jersey 
this season from early in May until the 18th of 
July, and pasturage and hay consequently short; 
but the rye carried us through admirably until 
the last of July, xvlien the sweet-corn was fully 
tasseled and five to six feet high. This then took 
the place of rye for the remainder of the season. 
In the cool, moist climate of Great Britain, and 
on the continent, where irrigation is practiced, 
rye or ray-grass is much cultivated as a forage 
crop. Our fall and spring rye may be as largely 
and as advantageously grown among us for the 
same purpose as the above two grasses. Wheat 
also may be cultivated for forage, and as it 
ripens later than rye it would assist in prolong¬ 
ing the soiling crop. Its straw is more nutri¬ 
tious than that of rye, and is equally palatable. 
Ogden Farm Papers.—No. 43. 
Mr. J. Milton Mackie has been stimulated by 
the report of Mr. Robeson’s dairy to publish the 
record of his own for the month of June—when 
14 cows made 422 lbs. butter, being an average 
of one pound per day for the whole herd, not 
nearly all the cows being in fresh milk. This 
is the more noteworthy, as many of his cows 
are rather small even for Jerseys. It sometimes 
seems as though an apology were due the read¬ 
ers of these papers for the frequent accounts 
given of the performances of this breed, and I 
hesitate the more to write so much on the sub¬ 
ject from the fact that I am myself a breeder of 
them. At the same time, I adopted them some 
years ago iii the <belief that they would be the 
most profitable for my dairy, and I am more 
and more convinced not only that this is true, 
but that every butter-maker in the country will 
find the profit of his dairy to increase in direct 
proportion to the increase of this blood in his 
herd. If my writing results in its introduction 
here and there throughout the country its pre¬ 
valence is sure to increase to the great advan¬ 
tage of one of our most important industries, 
and all this reiteration will be fully justified. 
The demand for Jersey cat tle is rapidly extend¬ 
ing, especial.v in the West and South-west (in 
spite of the very heavy cost of sending single 
animals by express), so much so that I have de¬ 
cided f>~ '• iablish a depot in Southern Illinois 
to which to ship more cheaply by the car-load, 
supplying that demand more reasonably. 
The “deen-can system ” has had such a long 
rest that 1 shall not be blamed for referring to 
it again. After a trial of it for about two years 
