Pinedale Roundup

Hoped That Specific Standards Will Result in Improvement of Stock.

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.)

Tentative grades for cannery tomatoes have been formulated by the United States Department of Agriculture for the purpose of providing a basis for agreements and purchases of raw material used in the manufacture of canned tomatoes and tomato products. It is hoped that the use of specific standards will produce better business relations between manufacturers and growers, and ultimately result in a measurable improvement in the quality of the stock delivered to the cannery.

The principal of standardization is now firmly established and becomes more popular each year, the department says. Grades are widely used in the buying and selling of farm crops and are now considered a necessary feature of any well-ordered system of marketing. It is felt that grades probably can be made applicable to most, if not all, of the fruits and vegetables grown for cannery purposes.

No Standard Grades.

Up to the present time there has been no standard grades for cannery tomatoes. Some manufacturers have endeavored to buy on more or less definite specifications, but there has been little uniformity in the terminology and application of such locally drawn standards.

Establishment of federal grades will enable all canners to buy on a quality basis and enable growers to sell tomatoes at prices commensurate with the quality delivered, the department says.

Success of the department's system of grading cannery crops seems to depend largely upon the establishment of definite gradations in price to conform with the variations in quality and condition, it is pointed out. Such price gradations will furnish a stimulus to the grower to strive to deliver only a high quality product, in order to secure the attendant premium. A fair basis for discounting deliveries of low-grade tomatoes will also discourage the grower from delivering low-grade stock, and bring about a marked improvement in the quality of the tomatoes grown and harvested. The grower who finds that he is unable to produce tomatoes that will grade U. S. No. 1 will be inclined to discriminate more carefully in the purchase of his seed or plants, and will focus his interest on the elimination of the unproductive and poorly adapted strains of tomatoes and the constant improvement of a few well-selected varieties, the department feels.

Growers of cannery tomatoes will not be expected to use the proposed grades as a basis for separating the crop into two or three classes before hauling to the cannery, as this probably would unduly increase handling costs. Canners ordinarily are not equipped to handle lots of different qualities separately, and since individual lots lose their identity immediately after being unloaded there would be little advantage in doing extensive sorting of the crop in the field, the department says. It is felt that the more logical plan would be for manufacturers to employ the standards as a basis for sampling the loads as they come to the receiving platform, thereby ascertaining the grade and fixing the value of each load.

To Try Out Standards.

The principle of buying cannery tomatoes on grade is meeting with considerable interest among canners of tomatoes and tomato products and several manufacturers have indicated their intention to try out the proposed federal standards as a basis for their buying next season. One manufacturer in southern New Jersey has incorporated in his agreements with the growers the U. S. No. 1 grade. In western New York the grades will be used by one large operator on a portion of the acreage which he has under contract for 1924. Indiana canners have assured the department that they are heartily in accord with the efforts being made to formulate a fair and workable system of grading, and have offered their co-operation in getting such a system established uniformly in that state.

The tentative grades have been approved and adopted unanimously by the Tri-State Packers' association, an organization representing the cannery interests of Delaware, Maryland and New Jersey. It also is reported that the proposed grades probably will be established as legal grades in New Jersey by the bureau of markets of the state department of agriculture.