FRUIT GRADING

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23011, 12 April 1938, Page 15

FRUIT GRADING

Sir, —l wish to point out to your correspondent "Twenty Years nn Orchardist" that the chief difficulty of orchardists is that we are producing for profit (if we can make one) —and not for consumption. If ours were a State industry and profits were immaterial, 1 might reasonably employ a gang of youngsters to pick up the many hundreds of bushels of apples that were blown down in my orchard a week ago when Hawke's Bay experienced a 25 mile-an-hour wind for a couple of days. Mr. Nash deserves our sincere thanks for complying with our request to standardise our fruit, and lie has shown wisdom by refusing tc» make six grades. The market value of commercial B grade fruit —the fourth grade—is so low that I do not bother to case it. A Wellington shopkeeper told me that he was buying commercial B Delicious apples at 3s, and selling them to return him 8s a bushel If your correspondent fruit below that grade, he would probably get less than 3s. but the public would still have to pay Bs. 1 consider that if a man is growing good fruit he has quite enough to do without having to grade, pack and market his produce. That is a specialist's job, and a substantial number of Hawke's Bay growers realise that fact and act accordingly. Woolly Arms.