The method of packing the fruit is very variable, and in fact a large part of it is not packed at all.  Most of the small fruit growers use the sixteen quart crate, while the apple, if it is packed at all, is packed in barrels.  One requirement of a package is that it be clean, and if it must be clean a secondhand package cannot be used.  Many fall down here by using secondhand, odd sized and dirty crates or barrels.  The shipping crate should be kept out of the field and off of the ground.  The place for it is in the packing house.

The apple growers often take their barrels into the field to fill them and thus more or less soil them.  This is not done to any great extent at Mankato, for most of the barrel packing is done at the fruit houses, the growers bringing in the apples loose in a wagonbox.  This is a good system as the apples are only handled three times:  from the tree to the picking basket, from the picking basket to the wagonbox, and from here into barrels.  By this method the apples are sorted both at the picking and barreling time.  If the apples are to be graded or packed at the farm, a packing house should be provided at or near the orchard.

It is needless to speak of the slack and inefficient method of marketing apples in sacks, salt barrels and odd boxes; but this is still done by some half-way growers.  They often have to either take the fruit back and feed it to the pigs or give it away.  Even when they are able to sell it, they barely cover expense of picking and marketing.

Several methods of selling their fruit are available to the growers around Mankato.  The different methods used are (1) selling direct to consumer, (2) selling to stores, (3) selling to wholesale houses, (4) selling to commission men.

The amount handled in the “direct to the consumer” way is rather large in the case of small fruit, but there is very little so-called “apple peddling” done.  Some growers have regular customers whom they supply yearly with a barrel or more of apples, but this is usually some friend or relative.  Some growers peddle out their summer apples by driving through the residence sections of the city and selling to anyone who wants to buy and in such quantities as they desire, but not all growers care to follow this plan.  Sales are always made for cash, except perhaps where a person is a regular customer.  This method is too unsatisfactory to be used for winter apples but is often advantageous in disposing of a large crop of summer apples.  The fruit is not usually in very good shape, and is often that which the fruit dealers have rejected.  The fruit is marketed in any package that happens to be handy, or loose, in the box, and is measured out usually in small quantities to the buyer.

[Illustration:  A load of apples from P.L.  Keene’s orchard, near Mankato]