Methods of Shipping and Packing. 
By W. S. Hart. 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
It has been wittily said, “To train a 
child, commence with his grandfather.” 
So to market fruit easily and profitably, 
one should commence by so cultivating, 
fertilizing and handling the grove as to 
produce good fruit, i. e., fruit of desira¬ 
ble sizes, good color, fine appearance, 
heavy weight, leathery rind and with 
juice qualities of the highest type; but, 
as all this has been and will continue to 
be discussed in these meetings by other 
committees, I will pass on to the time 
the fruit is taken from the tree. 
By a careful study of Prof. G. Harold 
Powell's very valuable report, “The De¬ 
cay of Oranges While in Transit From 
California” (Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Bulletin No. 123), and the report of 
Prof. Tenny before this society last year, 
all orange growers should become con¬ 
vinced of the important part that careful 
and proper handling of the fruit bears 
on the matter of successful marketing. 
With the best product of its kind, put on 
the market in the best possible shape there 
remains little in the way of “marketing 
problem” that need tax the ability of any 
able business man. 
Every handler of fruit wants the out¬ 
put of him who furnishes the best. To 
the dealer it means high prices, the most 
profit, the best trade and the finest kind 
of advertising at no cost whatever; for 
every grower wants to get in where high 
prices are being steadily realized, no mat¬ 
ter what the quality of his own fruit may 
be, and the consumer able to pay for the 
best goes to the high-priced merchant, 
feeling assured that there is where he 
will find it. 
I propose in this paper to give special 
attention to that branch of the subject 
covering the preparation of oranges so 
that they may command the attention of 
the best trade on arrival in market, leav¬ 
ing the broader but not more important 
phases otf marketing to other members 
of this committee, whose experiences 
especially fit them for the work. 
Hire all help by the hour, except, pos¬ 
sibly, the foreman and box-maker. When 
sending the pickers to the grove they 
should be well equipped with plenty of 
the best tools for their work that the 
market, or the employer, can provide. 
A strong draft animal, with nose cov¬ 
ered so that he cannot browse even a leaf 
from the trees, a good, three-reach plat¬ 
form wagon so made that the hind wheels 
will follow the tracks of the front ones, 
plenty of good field boxes made to rest 
one on top of the other in a way that 
will not allow of slipping, and with sides 
lower by three inches than the tops of 
the end heads, with openings at the sides 
near the bottom to allow of the free cir¬ 
culation of air and easy cleaning, with 
sides not too thick or heavy, and the box 
to hold no more or less than from one- 
