Show COMMUNITY PACKING IN NORTHWEST ot of popular new community prise by sp spec ec gillest methods leum learn ed cd amt year washington D C community apple packing houses are likely to solve tho the problem ot of labor lit in handling in fit a short abort period tile tho increasing apple crop of tile tho pacific northwest thu success ot of the centralized packing plants in 1916 not previously tried to any considerable extent in this region was indicated by the wide adoption of this plan pian last season when perhaps one fourth of the crop lit in oregon and washington was packed in community houses investigations of the new enterprise last season conduced condu ted by specialists in the office of markets Market fl in the united states department of agriculture and now published in a pre preliminary report make available for interested Int ersted organizations and individuals suggestions as to best beat methods of constructing equipping i and operating such packing plants the advantages of the community over tile the individual or ranch plan of packing according to the specialists afo aro better and more uniform forin grading and packing obtaining experienced labor moro more readily antl anti using Inex inexperienced por labor moie e effectively ff e C dively using expensive labor saving equipment such as sizing machines and gravity conveyors which tho the small grower could not afford and the simplifying and facilitating of insist alon work the community packing house scheme Is new and consequently an unperfected od phase of the apple indus try although the idea was widel widely employs last year its adaptations were largely experimental In invest vesti gation gallon by department specialists was undertaken to sift from the various plans tried the best and most moat econ method of handling apples I 1 through all tho the operations opera tlona of picking Zilig hauling from the orchard receiving it the packing house grading sizing P packing storing and load loading flig on oil tile the cars sixty packing houses louses at or 01 near spokane Sp north yakima wen ifelice cashmere englat pateros drowsier brewster Olia nogan omak and walla walla washington anti and hood flood alv 11 V ar oi and medford Med tord oregon were include od ed in tile the study of these sixty houses tit thirty I 1 arty three were operated as ac community housos houses seven were oper abed by dealers somewhat on tilt the community plan and twenty were ranch houses individual or ranch packing houses and operations wore were included in fit the investigation so fast tile tho clency and economy of the two systems might bd ba compared while the investigators preferred not to draw bennato nato conclusion from a single seasons work the discus slona lons of equipment organization ind personnel a floor unit genera operation and specifically toh tell opera liolis in ill two typical houses chic male make up tip tho report provide for grow ors era of the northwest what prove a helpful summary of methods that wore were most successful stitt last year |