Of course, the grower who picks marketable tomatoes and leaves unmarketable fruits on the vine is engaged in a form of grading--informal and subconscious. Methods may range from this simple practice to the elaborate schemes adopted in large packing houses. There is no difficulty in adopting methods for the farm that are easily managed and perfectly practical. In general, two grades to sell represent a good plan, leaving culls at home unless prices are high and there is good demand for them. The set-up may involve no more than a worker at a table with three baskets--one with tomatoes from the field; another for #1's and a third for #2's. The worker may well use a cotton flannel glove or cloth to wipe the tomatoes and the fruits should be placed in layers to bring the package to a good face. With some practice, this slows the operation but very little. Shed packing should be more common than it is though the practice seems to be gaining. Shippers scattered from Cuba and California to New York state have packing houses set up to all degrees of elaborateness. Some have machines and conveyors that wash, sort for size, provide for hand sorting for grade and deliver to bins for packing. Experienced packers advance with the season from Florida to Lake Erie. These workers become almost incredibly expert and speedy. It is not uncommon for a worker to pick up, wrap and place in the lug box 60 or 70 tomatoes per minute--not as a show-off but in course of regular work. [Illustration: FIGURE 21.--Puffiness is a common defect in tomatoes, especially when grown in the winter in the South.] The federal government has worked out and published standards for the grades of tomatoes along with most other vegetables. These standards are practical and have found wide acceptance as furnishing common language between seller and buyer, especially for long distance shipment. The one who grades may, however, set up a standard of his own to meet the needs of his conditions and market. U.S. Standards for cannery tomatoes are widely used as a basis of payment to the grower and this practice is to be commended. Packaging The lug box has almost wholly replaced the older 6-basket carrier and 4-basket flat for shipment of tomatoes. It is in almost every respect, a good package for tomatoes. It is built with solid board ends, with veneer or sawed sides, bottom and cover. Cleats on the ends serve to raise the lids so that a bulge pack will not be injured by pressure. Veneer covers and bottoms are held together by stitched veneer cross pieces. The lug box is packed in three layers and holds about 30 pounds net of tomatoes though it is often over-packed to carry considerably more. The bulge pack is desirable only so far as it is necessary to insure a tight pack and to take up the small shrinkage that takes place in transit. Ordinarily, it goes beyond this. It results in delivery of more tomatoes than are paid for, and in bruising because the top center is too high.