Cherries are sent to canneries in various packages but chiefly in
half-bushel baskets or paper-lined bushel crates, the container being
often supplied by the cannery. The six- and eight-pound baskets are the
favored receptacles for Sour Cherries in city markets but the Sweet
sorts are rather oftener sent in four-pound baskets and still more
frequently in quart boxes. In the larger packages not much effort is
made to make the fruit attractive but in the smaller ones, stemless and
bruised cherries are thrown out and the package filled, stem down, with
the best fruits. In fancy grades all of the fruit in the box is layered.
The demands of the market, of course, determine the package and the
manner of packing. Cherries are seldom stored longer than a few days at
most in common storage and a week or two weeks in cold storage.
There is a marked difference in the shipping and keeping qualities of
varieties of cherries, the sorts that keep longest and ship best, quite
at the expense of quality, having the call of the markets. Undoubtedly
this must remain so, though it is to be desired that local markets, at
least, be supplied with the best, irrespective of handling qualities. A
further factor that prevents the placing of choicely good cherries in
distant markets at all times is brown-rot, to be discussed later, which
more often attacks the juicy and usually the best-flavored varieties,
oftentimes ruining the pack on the way to market--one of the most
discouraging events incidental to cherry-growing.
Marketing machinery for cherries is at present very costly, inadequate
and frequently sadly out of gear. The fruit passes first from the grower
to a local buyer who ships to a center of consumption, transportation
companies taking heavy toll on the way. Jobbers or commission companies,
who in some cases receive the fruit direct from the grower, then
distribute the crop to retailers in the consuming centers. Lastly, the
retailer parcels out the quantities and the qualities demanded by the
housewife. The whole business of selling the crop is speculative and the
grower is fortunate to receive half of what the consumer pays and not
infrequently has all of his pains for nothing or may even be forced to
dip into his pocket for transportation. The perishableness of the
product and the present defects of distribution go far to make the crop
the hazardous one it is but all look forward to better times coming
under an improved system of marketing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account