Vol. LXV. No. 2969. 
WEEKLY, .#1.00 PER YEAR. 
NEW YORK, DECEMBER 22, 1906. 
HANDLING PEACHES IN THE WEST. 
How Fruit is Prepared for Shipment. 
It is not enough to raise good fruit to strike the top- 
notch prices in the market. The products of the or¬ 
chard must be picked, sorted, packed and shipped ac¬ 
cording to up-to-date and businesslike methods or the 
fruit grower is taking advantage of but half of his 
opportunity, and is so much the loser thereby. 
The western growers have been the first to learn and 
apply these rules. This is particularly true of the 
orchardists of the irrigated districts. With them it 
was a lesson taught by necessity. The lack of a local 
market, the exorbitantly high freight rates, the high 
price of land, varying from $100 to $400 per acre, 
according to the location, the nature of the soil, and the 
abundance of the water 
supply made it necessary 
for them to do the matter 
well or not at all. The 
result is that fruit from 
the irrigated region of the 
West, most notably from 
Idaho, Utah and Colorado, 
is outselling our home 
product in our own mar¬ 
kets, and that at a good 
profit to the grower. This 
is not entirely due to a 
better quality of fruit. 
Much of it is due to the 
the more careful packing 
and shipping of the west¬ 
ern grower. There are 
two different methods of 
handling fruit in this re¬ 
gion. The grower ships 
his own product either 
alone or in co-operation 
with some of his neigh¬ 
bors, or the fruit is sold to 
a packer and shipper. The 
largest packing establish¬ 
ment of Utah is situated 
in Provo, and it is the 
methods employed in this 
house which will be here 
described. 
Peaches are packed and 
sorted on the farm on 
which they are grown, be¬ 
ing brought to the pack¬ 
ing houses only for ship¬ 
ping; all other fruits are 
sorted and packed in the 
house itself. Fig. 423 shows 
the packing house of W. 
M. Roylance, who is the 
foremost figure on the 
left side. The girls in the foreground are packing 
plums and prunes for the fancy trade in four-trayed, 
paper-lined crates. The paper is so folded that it 
conies between each layer of the fruit. To the left 
are boxes of pears for eastern shipment, ready to be 
wheeled into the refrigerator cars. In general the 
peaches are picked when they are well colored but 
still firm. As the peaches color very high in this 
region it is probable that they have not yet reached 
the degree of ripeness that the coloring would seem 
to indicate. Such varieties as the Heath Cling have 
but very little color when they arc packed, while the 
Elbertas should show considerable color. This means 
that the peaches must be sorted on the trees. Some 
growers pick the same trees two or three times, leav¬ 
ing the greener fruit until it reaches maturity. The 
greatest care is taken not to bruise the peaches. They 
are picked one by one into boxes, baskets or sacks, 
usually from step-ladders. The majority of the trees 
are headed low, and are never allowed to grow over- 
large, which greatly facilitates careful picking. If it 
is necessary to pour the fruit from one box to another, 
great care is used; in pouring upon the sorting benches, 
the box is held low to avoid bruising. Nearly every 
peach orchard is provided with an open shed for 
sorting and packing. The girls sit around low benches, 
upon which the peaches are poured. Before them is 
a rack which holds the box in an inclined position. 
The grading of the peaches is sometimes done by the 
girls as they fill the boxes, and in some cases by 
especial girls who sort them into the two sizes and 
culls. Peaches arc rejected for being overripe, under¬ 
ripe, undersized, diseased, misshapen or bruised. Any 
defect is sufficient to throw the fruit into the culls. 
Overripe or rot-affected specimens are rigidly excluded, 
as a single specimen might spoil the sale of the whole 
box. The size is determined by means of a metal ring 
through which the packer or sorter slips the doubtful 
fruit. An experienced packer soon learns the size, 
and is able to dispense with the ring in sorting. 
Peaches over two inches in diameter are put into the 
first class, and those under two into the second. As 
will be seen later from the size of the package used, the 
peach qannot be very much less than two inches, or 
it is thrown out entirely. 
There are two styles of package in use for shipping 
peaches, known respectively as the 5x8 and the 6x9, 
meaning that there are five peaches in the row across 
the box and eight in the row lengthwise, and similarly 
with the 6x9. The larger size are packed in a box 
4J/xll 14x19^4 inches, the smaller in a 4x1134x1994- 
Each box has two layers of fruit, the first holding 80 
peaches and the second 108. The packer, with a deft 
movement, picks up a peach with the right hand and 
a square of paper, six or eight inches in size with the 
left. 'Idle peach is so held that the paper when wrapped 
around folds over the stem end, which is placed on the 
inside. When the bottom layer is completed the next 
layer is begun, only that the peaches are faced the 
other way. When the box is packed both layers are 
wrapped and faced. The box is then fastened and 
stamped with the size, as 5x8, and the name of the 
variety. The Heath Cling is always shipped as White 
Cling and the Elbertas as Yellow Cling. The stamping 
is done in the packing house. Peaches picked and 
packed in this way are warranted to remain good 
for 30 days in cold storage, and they are frequently 
more than a week in transit to the eastern markets. 
Pears are sorted and 
packed the same as the 
peaches, save that the 
pears arc packed in a 
bushel box. These boxes 
and their covers are made 
of very light material, and 
the pears are so packed 
that when the cover is 
nailed on there is a decid¬ 
ed bulge to the cover. It 
is just tight enough to 
hold the fruit without 
slipping, and not tight 
enough to jam it. The 
apples are put in similar 
boxes, but are not 
wrapped. The paper used 
for wrapping is plain 
white, about the thickness 
of newspaper material. 
The packing of the re¬ 
frigerator cars is a matter 
of no small importance in 
the long-distance shipping. 
So particular is Mr. Roy¬ 
lance about the cars which 
he uses that a car of an 
unsuitable size is prompt¬ 
ly sent back. One car 
which was nearly loaded 
was discovered to be so 
short, that in order to get 
in the load, the boxes 
would have to be piled 
more than six high. The 
car was immediately un¬ 
loaded and sent back to 
the company. About a foot 
is left around the edge of 
the car for air space. The 
lower layer of the boxes is 
placed on little platforms 
which raise it about two inches from the floor. About 
four to six inches are left between the tiers of boxes, 
which are piled directly above each other. The peach 
boxes arc built with a cleat on the covers, which holds 
the boxes about a half inch apart when they are piled 
one above the other When three boxes are tiered up 
a cleat about the smaller diameter of the car in length 
is nailed to each top box in the row. This cleat is the 
same size of the one on the top of the boxes, and 
holds the shipment firmly in the car, preventing sliding. 
Tn the case of the pears such a cleat is nailed between 
every box and the one above, and serves the double 
purpose of holding the boxes in place and providing the 
air space. The car is loaded six tiers high of the 
bushel boxes, but is seldom loaded higher, as the air 
is too warm above that height for the best keeping of 
the fruit. 
The best illustration of the advantage of raising good 
INTERIOR OF A UTAH FRUIT PACKING HOUSE. Fig. 423. 
