Arizona state miner., 1926-08-21
CAREFULLY GRADE
MARKET PEACHES

LII years VI d uedVy crop II is ndru
to sell peaches unless they are care
fully graded, J. w. Lloyd, in charge
of fruit and vegetable marketing in
vestigationS at the college Of agricul-
ture, University of Illinois, points out
in the directions which he gives for
the grading and packing of peaches.
When supplies are abundant, the mar
ket becomes very discriminating and
is likely to ignore all peaches not
meeting its fancy, he explained Uni
formly large peaches, free from blem-
ishes, may sell very well, while small
or slightly blemiShed peaches go beg
ging on the saa&es- market, he added.
"Not all peaches suitable for ship
.ment are uniform enough in size, color
and freedom from blemishes to sell to
the best advantage if packed together.
Certain classes of trade call for ex-
tra-fine table peaches, and such
peaches command premium over the
less highly finished product, although
the latter may be we'll suited to can
ming and other uses. The more nearly
uniform the peaches in given lot,
the better they will sell. Often the
second grade, packed alone, will sell
nearly as we'll as a mixture Of first
and second grades. And the first
grade sells very much better by itself
than if even a few inferior specimens
are included in the package.
''Three factors must be considered
in the grading of peaches: maturity,
blemishes and size. In case fancy
pack is to be made, color also is con-
cerned If peaches are picked too
green, they must be culled; if so ripe
as to be easily bruised in handling,
they are unsuitable for shipment but
may be sold locally for immediate use.
With reference to blemishes and size,
If each grower grades according to his
own ideas without regard to what 9TH
ers are doing, many variations in
grades will result, and each lot of
peaches must be seen by the buyer
before a sale can be made. On the
other hand, if all growers graded ac-
according to some definite, recognized
standard, it would be possible to make
sales by wire without personal In
spection by the purchaser. This would
greatly facilitate the handling Of
large crop. Growers therefore will
find it to their advantage to pack ac-
cording to the United States grades
for peaches. These grades are we'll
known in the trade and have been
adopted as official for Illinois. Small
quantities of peaches may be graded
by hand but for large volumes OF
fruit a mechanical grader should be
used.
"Although the four-basket tomato
fiat formerly was used for packing IL
linois peaches and the siX-basket car
rier has occasionally been used, the
standard package at the present time
is the bushel basket. Special types OF
bushel packages are used to slight
extent, but for the most part the reg
ular form Of standard bushel basket
is employed. This year new pack
age built like an egg case with sep
arate compartment for each peach, is
being tried in an experimental way
for the handling of fancy table
peaches that have been allowed to
remain on the tree until they have
developed full flavor and are too ripe
for safe handling by ordinary methods.
"No matter what method of pack
ing is used, the work will be greatly
simplifed by convenient arrangement
of the packing she'd
Extreme care should be exercised
in handling the peaches all the way
from the trees to the refrigerator car,
in order to avoid bruising or otherwise
injuring them.
"When the peach crop is large, only
the better grades should be sent to the
city market. The No 3, or Gull, grade
should never be packed for shipment
The small peaches and No. grade
should be sold locally. If the packing
shed is located near a hard road, a
large quantity of peaches may be sold
TO persons coming in autos or auto
frJcI<S "