The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1906-10-01

of the commission merchants called
my attention to some grapes that hau
been sent in for sale. They were
nice looking grapes but were badly
packed. The baskets were not full.
The commission man remarked that II
the grower had added two pounds
more grapes to each crate, containing
four baskets, they would readily sell
for 25 cents more per crate. That
would be a big price for two pounds
of grapes. That is just the way 1t
works. BY saving eight or ten cents
worth of grapes the grower lost 70
cents BY putting a few poor apples
in a. box of nice fruit 25 cents or
more is lost in the selling.
No doubt in some cases the grower
thinks a few inferior apples will not
be detected. That is great mis-
take. The buyer soon learns how to
inspect the fruit he is buying, so as
not to be cheated Better by far throw
the poor apples away than to try
to palm them off on the fruit
dealer. If the poor apples are SOLD
at all let them be put up by them
selves and sold as the second grade
or culls. A half dozen second grade
apples in a box, although the re-
mainder are all first grade, will cause
the whole box to be sold as second
grade. Not only must the boxes all
be full and the grade uniform, but the
package must be made to look neat.
A dirty box or an untidy pack will
cause a large loss. A commission
man in Seattle once showed me some
hot
formed me that the little specks of
dirt on those apples would cause the
loss of Is cents per box. People don't
want to buy dirt-they are too famll-
lar with the saying, Cheap as dirt
IF the retail dealer has to go to work
and clean up a box of fruit and put
it into presentable form, he expects
to be well paid for his work and that
EXPENSE comes off of the grower. 1t
paws to line apple boxes with paper
for thew look SO much heater that
they will sell on an average Tor ten
cents more on the box which is
more than five times as much as the
cost of the paper. We believe it pays
TO wrap all our high grade apples.
We nav our packers the same for
hacking wrapped apples as those not
nrefer to wrap the apples at the same
nrice for hacking. It takes less time
to fit the apples and gives them
neat and uniform appearance.
X
noticed good many peaches
come into the Seattle market this
season that were loose IN the poA.
This was no doubt the result in most
casas of trying to make the peaches
grade high, but it was mistake
nevertheless. Peaches must be maze
tight in the box. This does not mean
that they should be squeezed IN so as
to mash the fruit. 1t is true, as
general rule, that the higher the
peaches will grade in size the hlgher
they will sell. But where they are
loose in the box more is lost on thaI
account than is gained by getting
higher grade.
Recently, when on my fruit farm III
Yakima valley, l was invited by D. u
Laughlin, whose beautiful ranch Is
about a mile from mine, to call anu
examine a peculiar growth on some OIL
his top-worked apple trees. Where the
scion and stock formed the union
there was found a growth very much
like crown gall. After careful ex-
animation my judgment is that 1t Is
the same kind of growth. A knot or
lump forms at the point of union
between the graft and the tree. MI.
Laughlin has cut some of them out
hut that does not seem to check the
growth, especially if this cutting is
done early in the season. Whether
the later cutting will check this ab-
normal growth is not yet settled. 10
me this is a new thing. we nave
ton-worked about 1900 trees on our