ts
from even the same vine; the more uniform in all respects the fruit in
a package is the more attractive and salable it becomes. There is no
fruit where careful grading and packing have more influence on the price
it will command.

[Illustration: FIG. 29--FLORIDA TOMATOES PROPERLY WRAPPED FOR LONG
SHIPMENT (Photo by courtesy of _American Agriculturist_)]

I know of a certain noted peach-grower in northern Michigan who grew,
each year, some 2 to 5 acres of tomatoes for the Chicago market. It was
his custom to pick out about one-tenth of the best of the fruit, putting
it into small and attractively labeled packages; the remainder of the
crop was sorted over and from one-tenth to one-fifth of it rejected and
fed to stock or sold to a local cannery. The remainder was sent to
Chicago with his selects, but as common stock, and usually brought more
than his neighbors received for unsorted fruit; but the check he
received for his selects was usually as large as that for his commons,
thus giving him about 33-1/3 per cent. more for his crop than his
neighbors received for their equally good, but unsorted, fruit--to say
nothing of what he received for the rejected fruit and the saving of
freight which, he said, was usually enough to pay the actual cost of
sorting.

Tomatoes are usually classed as vegetables but, when ripe, they require
as careful handling as the most delicate fruits and are as easily and
seriously injured by bruising and jarring. Just how this can be avoided
and the fruit gotten from the vine to the possibly distant consumer in
the best condition will vary in different cases. Tomatoes from the South
(Fig. 29) are generally marketed in carriers which, though varying
somewhat, are essentially alike and consist of an open basket or boxes
of veneer holding about 10 pounds of fruit. When shipped, two, four or
six of these are packed in crates made of thin boards, so as to protect
the fruits but give them plenty of air.

=Packing.=--Most of the fruit sent to New York and Philadelphia markets
from New Jersey and other northern states is in boxes or crates holding
about 5/8 of a bushel and so made as to facilitate ventilation when
piled in cars or warehouses. Fruit for the canneries is usually picked
and handled in bushel crates of lath. These various packages are usually
sold in the flat and the grower puts them together as is convenient
before the crop comes on; but in many sections where there are large
shipment