The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1906-02-07
Gathering and Packing Fruits and
- Vegetables.

to the following from the Homeseeker:
important subject that it seems sup
erfiliOus to write more, but the old ad
age, that constant dripping wears the
stone" occurs to us, so. we venture to
write at least one more chapter along
the line, as we feel that there is no
subject of so great interest to the
fruit and vegetable grower as this.
Nature and natures laws do a great
deal for this class of producers. We
| have seen many times really fine stuff
grown i'm fields where the poorest pos
sible methods of culture and fertili-
| cation had been followed. In these
fields, of course, there was a great
amount of fruits and vegetables that
| would have been classed as seconds,
yet it would have been worth shipping
| had the grower carefully gathered, as
sorted and packed it, and the Fancy
| been packed properly by itself. The
grower instead of doing this, packed
| culls, choice and fancy in the same
box and expected his commission
| merchant to send him the highest
market quotations for this stuff.
We remember once being in a COM
| mission house IN New York when a
shipment of tomatoes came in from
| an East Coast grower. The salesman
| said to us: Il am going to open up
| this stuff; come and see for yourself
how it opens up We went into a
| back room used as store-rOOm. and
he ordered a workman to open up the
| boxes. The crates were marked
| Fancy" and some Extra Fancy"
| Those marked Fancy" had tomatoes
of every size and condition that grows
| on a tomato vine, from the smallest,
poorest culls to really fancy tomatoes
| Those marked Extra Fancy could
hardly be graded as real good
| Choice The shipper, as was stated
in his letter, thought he should receive,
| the highest market price, when in fact
if the same tomatoes had been placed
| On sale in Miami not a customer would
| have been found to purchase them. To
be more explicit in our statement in
| regard to the condition of the ship
| ment: In both classes, as classified
by the grower, there were fruit dead
ripe some just turning and others
dead green, while others were decayed.
The commission merchant refused to
give the name of the shipper; but said
he: HE will expect the highest
market price for those goods, for the
class named.'' -.
| While we are convinced that there
are dishonest commission men, we are
confident that the greatest trouble lies
with the grower. ~
During the last shipping season we
visited many packing-hOuses and we
were astonished at the almost uni
versal carelessness in gathering the
fruit. 1t ran from half grown fruit
through all the stages. of formation
to the mature fruit.
Every farmer or packing house is
making record on their pack, in fact
we are known by our works. There
is no man that realizes this more than
the. commission man, and. to receive
shipments from clearinghouse Or
farmer that is noted for their poor
grading and packing, is a detriment
to his business; in fact he would rather
they had sent their consignment to
| the other fellow" -..-.
| When a buyer purchases a certain
brand of tomatoes from a commission
house and they prove satisfactory in
every way, he will, when he comes
again for another purchase, go through