The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1907-03-07

ate the value Of the package at once,
Let MS consider for q moment what a
perfect package Of fruit consists of,
First Of ell, the truit itself must bt
perfect In shape ss to its type; its
skin must be Of that fresh, clear,
waxy appearance that at once attracts
the ere of the buyer; the color mus,
be as perfect a. possible; It must bs
sound, and the fruit must have been
picked at the proper time to insure q
certain keeping quality. Now as te
the pack. the gieat stumbling block
Of all new fruit districts. Ii has TAX
en- rs several years to bring our pack
to where 1t 10 today, but l wish to as
sure you right bere that our pack ID
yet far from perfect To see Just ten,
9fty, Or even hundred boxes might
give the impression that there was
nothing left to improve upon but BY
seeing whole season Q pack pass be.
tore my eyes, / find that there Ia still
growers and packers In our midst that
don't seem to realize the Importance
OF keeping our pack up to the highest
notch. don't want to convey the
idea that | think those things are
done malioiously, but IL is fact that
a great many Of our growers are new
in the business, they don I know the
Importance Of keeping up our stand.
ard, and the hard work IL took to
bring it.where 1t 10 today. And even
some Of our older growers may have
become somewhat lacking In vigilance
in grading their fruit, by reason OF
years Of continued success In the bus
mess. We must all realize that we are
one great family, and what hurts one
will eventually hurt all, and what
hurts all will come back to tho door
OF the Individual.
The different packs In use now
makes 1t possible to put up an even
pack of all the different sized apples.
and great care should be taken that
l2S size apples are not found in box
supposed to contain apples of the Ss
size, and vice versa. The grover can
be Of great assistance OF the packers
In sorting the fIui' before placing It
on the packing table. The making or
breaking Of the reputation Of our
pack lies to a great extent In the
hands of our packers. They are the
ones that actually do the work and
should know how to do 1t well. They
should be honest In the work, and
careful In their methods. They should
realize that our reputation, our
future, is wrapped up In every apple
they place In box. They should
never forget that there 10 more at
stake In packing tox Of apples than
just the five cents that is In 1t for
them.
In regard to grading as to quality,
It is well proven fact that just one
poor apple has many time spoiled
the sale Of an entire box, and perhaps
the buyer has Judged an entire car
load BY the appearance Of that one
box. The loss sustained In such a
case may amount to perhaps only 10
cents per box, but such losses are not
necessary at all, because no matter
how many apples have to be ouIied
out In order to make them fancy, the
seconds are always salable at q fair
figure, or eRn be taken to the cider
mill; but even had they I'd DO thrown
away, the price Of the fancy fruit will
increase enough to Offset the differ
enoe in price.
The Importance OF q neat, clean
package, decorated with q tasty label,
has perhaps in no instance been DEM
operated more clearly than by the
cal load Of 'Comice pears shipped to
New York two years ago by Mr.. @. III.
Lewis, Of Medford. Those peers are
Of ine eating quality, and sold Tor
about ss per box, Il remember
right. But would they have sold for
that price had they been packed any
old way?, No, never They we're
packed In clean, we'll finished, half
boxes the box had neat labelson 1t !;
the fruit was wrapped IN fancy paper !;
the bcx was lined with decorated pa
per; the fruit had layer paper between
the layers; on the top layer was placed
a fancy mat. These we're the things
that forced tile price of those pears to
where 1t never had been before.
When the consumer starts out to
purchase fruit, the box with neat
label catches his eye flrst, and II upon
in specting the fruit it comes up to
his requirements,, he purchases at
once; while the same quality of fruit
displayed In an unattractive, dirty
box right by its side will be unnotIc
cd. It is human nature, and we must
cater to 1t, IL we want to reap the
80 unf3ta frnvx ~ gTto xxr.na ,f n ,.aat
looking box properly labeled, In com
parison to the unattractive box, 10 80
little more that It compares to the ex-
ira price received tor the fruit like le
to l.
Our Newtowns today are bringing
on the English market more than any
other apple. Why do they bring more
money! Because our fruit is fancy,
our pack honest, our package neat.
But competition is growing keener ev-
cry year. Thousands of acres will
come into bearing from now on be-
tween Southern Oregon In the south
to Canada In the north, and they ere
ell striving to put q better pack on
the market from year to year. We
therefore must keep pace with them,
and manage TO be ahead Of the pro
cession just little all the time.
In regard to quality, we have moth
ing to fear. But other sections Car
pack their fruit just az well as we do
they can buy just az nice q box ant
label as we can. Il is therefore up tt
US to improve our methods a every
opportunity In putting up fancy frui
tor the man that pays us the fancy
price.
Mr.. Franz was then asked concern
ing the imperfectionv existing in pre-
pairing our fruit for market and re
piled that there were too many size
Of apples In the box, that the pacl
was not OF sufficient uniformity, ant
that this condition was largely due tt
the fact that the growers did not as
sort for size, and that too many ssize
we're placed on the packing table al
the same time, that al imperfect ap
pies should be removed before under
taking to pack.
A. |. Mason In discussing the cub
jevt spoke In favor Of employing ,
scientific packer as foreman Of eacl
crew, paying him competent salary
and alt0wfnu him t0' give hia entirt