The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-06-08
THE PACKING OF FRUIT.

The Visalia Times publishes warning
sent to Tulare fruit-grower by leading
merchant of London. 'tThe first and chief
fault" writes this merchant in discussing
the packing of dried fruit in California, sis
the persistent habit of marring good fruit
with bad or Indifferent fruit in the same
box-a layer or two of fine quality and
then more or less bad quality-which
spoils the whole box and the whole bust
ness. The second disastrous fault is bad
packing, by which the best fruit is seri-
ously diminished in value'
In showing the impossibility of imposing
on English dealers by the fraudulent prac-
tice OF covering poor layers with good, he
explains that when lot of packages is
received from ten to twenty out OF every
hundred are selected at random and are
cut down through the middle and the
actual quality of the fruit thus ascertained.
From this the quality of the whole lot is
determined. The writer adds: ''If those
growers only realized the folly of trying to
play pranks in the way 1 have mentioned
l think they would drop it as our English
merchants drop the trade on the old prin-
ciple that a burnt child breads the fire. -
He also gives this cheering inform alton:
81 think 1000 tons as well as 100 tons
could be placed if only buyers could feel
sure and certain of uniform, good and per-
feet quality and careful packing"
While it is clear that every grower who
resorts to fraud in packing is injuring the
California fruit trade in England, it is
equally clear that the appearance of fruit
when packed is very important element
of its sale. This does not apply so strongly
to England as to the United States. In
that country quality is held above appear
ance, while an opposite rule obtains with
us; but even in England good fruit at
tractivelv packed is more salable than good
fruit rudely packed.
The first movement in artistic packing
in California was taken at Riverside, where,
besides careful asserting of the oranges,
they were wiped and then wrapped sep
arately in tissue. The idea came from
Sicily, where lemons for export are
wrapped in tissue for reasons other than
appearances. From plain tissue the Riv-
erside growers advanced to fancy striped
paper of better quality. Then came the
dainty small parcels of raisins packed at
Fresno, and then equally attractive boxes
of glace fruits produced in various parts of
Iuc Cldlc. lie Hc1u IOT IuIbuoT dUVd0Ce-
ment on these lines is unlimited.
The apple-growers of Washington State
have been learning many valuable lessons
of late. One is that red apple is more
salable than yellow apple, even though
it may not be SO good, and that red apple
| wrapped in white tissue that softens the
color of the fruit to a delicate pink will
sell wherever offered and where the same
apples not wrapped would be ignored.
In short, the appearance of the fruit,
whether packed or not, is an important
consideration with the purchaser. The
Flame Tokay, though inferior to most of
our other table grapes, sells more readily
in the East because of its large size and
beautiful color. For a similar reason it is
more profitable to produce large than
small fruit of given kind. None of these
considerations, however, should be permit
ted to affect the honesty with which fruit
| is packed. The consumer who makes a
second purchase of label which he has
! found to cover layer of fine fruit on top
| and a poor quality below is a species of
idiot whom we cannot expect to exist in
abundant numbers.