attic provides a place for the storage of
baskets and crates. In all such houses provision must be made for
thorough ventilation, especially for the storage cellar if the grapes
are to be kept for any length of time. Properly ventilated, the
temperature of the grape cellar can be kept as low as 50 deg. F. during
September and October. The cellar floor in these houses is usually of
dirt better to regulate the moisture-content of the room. Often the
first floor is divided into two rooms, one to be used for
packing and the other as a shipping room. A good combination
packing-and-storage-house of this type can be built for $1000 to
$2000. Now that cold storage facilities can be secured in most
grape-growing regions, and the rates of storage are becoming more
reasonable, there is less need of storage-houses.

Packing-houses are so simple in construction and may be so different
in design that it is neither possible nor necessary to describe them
in detail. A building that protects the workers from the elements and
affords conveniences in packing serves the purpose. Such a
packing-house, which is often located in the vineyard, should be well
lighted, should be connected with the storage-room for baskets and
should have advantages for delivering the packages from the
storage-room to the packing-room and from the packing-room to the
shipping-room. Its size will depend on the quantities of grapes to be
packed. The house must be built so that it can be kept clean and
sweet.

[Illustration: FIG. 46. Packing grapes on a packing-table.]

Every packing-house, whatever the design, must be furnished with
tables for holding the trays while the fruit is being packed. Usually
these tables are so made that the picking trays are set before the
packers on an inclined table. The packer transfers the grapes from the
trays into the baskets in which the fruit is to be sold. The trays of
grapes as they come from the field are set before the worker, who then
packs the fruit into the basket from the left. As the baskets are
filled, they are placed on a flat ledge or shelf in front of the
packer and are then taken off by an attendant. Empty baskets are
usually held in store on a higher shelf convenient to the packer and
from time to time are replenished by the attendant. Figure 46 shows a
packing-table of the kind just described. Sometimes the packing-table
is circular and revolves, the packers sitting about the table. The
baskets are held on the