The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1907-08-15
THE PACKING OF FINE FRUIT.

THE PACKING OF FINE FRUIT.
The fruit growers of the Pacific Northwest have
an opportunity before them which seldom comes
to class of agrculturists in the history of
nation They have opportunity to capture the
worlds markets and make their fruits supreme
among the high grade consumers of the leading
nations of the world Their fruit has the quality
and it will rapidly gain the precedence and repu-
tation if the farmers who raise it look sufficiently
to their laurels.
But in order to fulfill this admirable destiny it
will be absolutely and utterly essential for the
growers of the states of Washington and Oregon
to learn the proper methods of packing their fruit
1t will be necessary for them to know how to pre-
pare their fruit for the markets in packages which
will be in keeping with the quality of the fruit
they produce and the markets they aspire to reach.
If Pacific slope fruit is to compete successfully
with fine fruits raised elsewhere it must be placed
in wrappers which will stand up alongside of the
wrappers these other fine fruits have, else it will
not attract the eye of the buyer and will go as an
inferior product The average buyer no matter
how discriminating, buys his fruit by the eye and
knows nothing further about it until he bites into
it. Therefore, if our grower of apples would
induce the consumer to buy Pacific coast fruits,
to get them to his table, where he will give 1T the
final and ultimate test and pass upon its quality
by biting into it, it is necessary that it must first
be attractive to his eye that he will not be re-
PEELED from buying it in the first place
Nor can the grower learn the best ways of pack
ing fruit or know what attractive packages
from staying his farm and using his own orig
inal ideas The average person is not original,
and if he is original the chances are that other
original people have just as good and better ideas
than his and more of them. Therefore, it behOOves
the grower of fine fruits to learn the science of
packing from other packers; not from packer
with one good idea, but from hundreds of packers
with many ideas which if amalgamated into one
SYSTEM would approximate perfection
In Paris and other cities of France there is
splendid practise that prevails among fruit grow
ers, which the growers of this section might imi-
tate to good purpose. There the farmers are in
the habit of coming to market with their own
produce now and then. They go up and down the
rows of dealers booths through the public
markets and examine the produce of other growers.
They see fruit of higher quality than their own
and learn how to grow it, and, moreover, they see
how fruit is packed and learn how to pack it.
They know if their own packages are up to the
standard If they not they go home and i'm
prove them They see some grower who has pre-
pared his fruit in packages which above the
average, and they study his method and go home
and adopt it. By visiting the markets now and
then they keep in touch with conditions and know
what is going and in this way they have
much broader comprehension of things which they
and every other fruit grower should understand
If the fruit growers of our own sections would
visit the markets and then, even If they only
came once in awhile, they could, by studying what
other growers doing learn much which would
be of benefit to them individually and collectively
1t would not be long before the poor fruit pack
ers would be initiating the best fruit packers
which would ultimately end in every grower send
ing in uniformly splendid packages of fruit which
would bring better prices and give the fruit of
this section an even enviable reputation than
it enjoys