Packer

“ I do not suppose there is sufficient business in the ordinary town for a packer all the year round, but I am quite certain that once it were known that you could pack well, when the going-away time came your services would be in great demand and you would seldom be out of work. ”

“ A truck with empty boxes keeps pace with it on one side, and one on the other to take care of the full crates. Lettuce heads are tossed on the wings of the combine and worked over just as in a dry packing shed. The girl who lines the boxes with paper, the cutters, the sorters, the packer, and the man who nailed the boxes, all ride on the machine. ”

“ Clearing a cargo from an English port was a complicated process. When the goods were brought down to the wharf they were taken over by the packer and his underlings, whose duty it was to pack them and enter them at the custom-house, giving a true inventory of the contents of the bales. The merchant having paid the duties to the customers, the latter sent ‘cocketts’ or tallies for the same to the searcher, who searched the ship to see if they were true. ”

“ Hence, inasmuch as the packer may refuse to buy until the waiting stock shall eat their heads off—the owner, through the broker, is compelled to sell as soon as he can, and is compelled to accept whatsoever price the packer may choose to offer him. So the packing companies grow steadily richer and their business spreads and Omaha increases also. ”

“ An Indian threw his pack upon the scales, the white owner jotted down the weight in a note-book, and another pack was thrown on. Each pack was in the straps, ready for the packer's back and the precarious journey over the Chilcoot. Frona edged in closer. She was interested in freights. She remembered in her day when the solitary prospector or trader had his outfit packed over for six cents,--one hundred and twenty dollars a ton. ”

“ The pack-horse idea is as old as America, but in its perfection it is the product of the Spanish Southwest. We read in history of the progresses of royal personages in ancient times in the Old World, where frequent mention is made of the number of sumpter-mules that attended the caravans in those roadless days. The sumpter-mule was the forerunner of the pack-mule, though it is to be doubted if any servant of an old-time king ever learned to do such impossible things with the sumpter-mule as the American packer did as a matter of course with his beasts of burden. ”

“ Every packer has been up against these things, but as a rule pure food inspectors have not, and they are sometimes slow to appreciate the packers’ side of the case. This is particularly true of local health inspectors who have had no experience with food manufacturing problems, and sometimes permit a packer to receive a lot of unfavorable and unjust newspaper publicity. ”

“ The bunco men aren't all at the county fair, and they don't all operate with the little shells and the elusive pea. When a packer has learned all that there is to learn about quadrupeds, he knows only one-eighth of his business ”

“ Last came the packers, drilled in the art of getting neither too few nor too many mackerel into a barrel, sprinkling constantly prodigal layers of brilliant salt. There were many intermediate corps of boys and girls carrying fish from point to point, and sometimes building them in stacks convenient to the hands of the more important labourers. ”

“ One is told that the English are the best packers in the world, but I have had more damage done in two cases sent from Bristol to London than in eighty cases sent from Boston to Liverpool. The three men worked three weeks, and then took all the cases out of the house and put them on the freight steamer, and the price of all this wonderful packing was about forty pounds. What will surprise an English person is that not one of these men expected a fee. My one ceaseless regret is that I did not take everything, from the kitchen poker to the mouse-trap. ”

“ An inspector looked at a crate once in a while and if he found culls he would take them back to the sorters and admonish them to be more careful. My job was to fork the culls away so new cart loads could be emptied. Farmers came and got these culls for their cattle. The mystery which I never did get explained, by boss or workman, was why the packers, who had the easiest job of all with no stooping or even skill of sorting out culls, were paid from $18 to $40 a day and the rest of us got 85 cents an hour. It was a custom for the packer to get more was all the answer I could get. ”

“ Between the producer and the consumer, between the buying and the selling price, the packers operate upon a smaller margin of profit than any other large industry. On invested capital they have realized an average of about 9 per cent over a term of years, on volume of sales about 2 per cent, and on each pound of meat less than one-half of a cent. ”

“ Another girl stood ready with my machine to label the corked bottles and hand them to the three packers, who slipped them into their outer papers and put them, with a pad of corrugated paper between each pair, into a little groove from which they could be made to slide neatly into position in our standard packing-case. It sounds wild, I know, but I believe I was the first man in the city of London to pack patent medicines through the side of the packing-case, to discover there was a better way in than by the lid. ”

“ The large packers all refine Lard and Tallow with the Fuller’s Earth process, and for the benefit of the small packers, who would like to know how it is done, we will give the full directions, although a small packing house can hardly afford to put in a plant for the process, as it requires a man who is experienced to refine Lard and Tallow in this manner. ”

“ And part of that story will have to do with certain agreements which our company has made with you and the other packers. And more than that, behind these arrangements there are a lot more of the same kind in our safe that we got from Dround and others. Now, if you want the whole story of the packing business aired in court and in the papers throughout the country, you'll have your wish."
"Pshaw!" he said coolly, "you don't suppose that bluff counts! They can't do a thing to us." ”

“ In packing for market, besides the directions already given as to prevent motion, it is very desirable to have the packages, of whatever form, whether boxes or barrels, of a neat appearance and uniform full size. The fruits should be well selected, and of a like average quality throughout, and not fixed up for market with the best only at the ends or sides that are to be first opened, while the inferior fruit is concealed within. Honesty is the best policy everywhere, and dealers soon learn to discriminate in favor of the brands of honest packers. ”

“ A man whose duty it is to place and adjust the loads of pack-animals and to take charge of them upon the march. As packing requires long training and experience, packers are usually hired when needed. ”

“ A monthly mail, however, and the telegraph line places the community much nearer civilised parts than its geographical position would lead one to suppose. The arrival of the mail, or of the packers, is a great event, more especially since no one knows what they may bring. Thus a train of pack-horses arrived at a time when flour was badly needed, but each load consisted of either sugar or lager-beer—both excellent articles but hardly adaptable to bread-making. The climate, situation, surroundings, and want of means of recreation all combine to make the publican's business a lucrative one. ”

“ Our advice in the handling of meats has saved Packers many thousands of dollars. We offer our advice free of charge to our customers. We make a specialty of both Analytic and Synthetic Chemistry. Our large clientele will always find us prompt in our services as heretofore. ”

“ It passes thru the lehr to the packers; and as each rack is emptied of its bottles the packers place it again on the belt, which carries it up to the machine, where it collects its cargo of hot bottles and conducts it again thru the lehr. The entire plant—mixing, feeding, actually making the bottles, delivery to the lehr, and packing—is synchronized exactly. Men unload the cars of sand—men pack the bottles. The intermediate period is entirely mechanical. ”

“ We got a big Gladstone for the clothes, and a couple of hampers for the victuals and the cooking utensils. We moved the table up against the window, piled everything in a heap in the middle of the floor, and sat round and looked at it.
I said I’d pack.
I rather pride myself on my packing. Packing is one of those many things that I feel I know more about than any other person living. (It surprises me myself, sometimes, how many of these subjects there are.) I impressed the fact upon George and Harris, and told them that they had better leave the whole matter entirely to me. ”

“ The only difference between this and a passage or packet boat, is, that their centre cabins are also for the accommodation of passengers, and in some instances a little more expensively finished, and travel at the rate of 4 miles an hour, while we rarely exceed 3-1/4, they with three horses, and we with only two. It is evident the freight boats very much injure the packets by the cheapness with which they run, but as they go with freight, their passage money is clear gain, and competition is the result. ”

“ To set out betimes and overtake the early carriers' carts on the road, each with its little cargo of packages and women with baskets and an old man or two, to recognize acquaintances among those who sit in front, and as I go on overtaking and passing carriers and the half-gipsy, little "general dealer" in his dirty, ramshackle, little cart drawn by a rough, fast-trotting pony, all of us intent on business and pleasure, bound for Salisbury—the great market and emporium and place of all delights for all the great Plain. ”

“ In addition to each man's private luggage, each mess, generally composed of from five to ten men who were drawn together by similar tastes and associations, had its outfit, consisting of a large camp chest containing skillet, frying pan, coffee boiler, bucket for lard, coffee box, salt box, sugar box, meal box, flour box, knives, forks, spoons, plates, cups, &c., &c. These chests were so large that 8 or 10 of them filled up an army wagon, and were so heavy that two strong men had all they could do to get one of them into the wagon. ”

“ Shipping Ages. —The table on next page gives what is considered the age, in days, at which different kinds and weights of sweet pickled hams and sides are cured sufficiently to smoke; also at which different kinds of barrel pork are cured sufficiently to be sold; also the cuts which should and should not be pumped.
Second Pickle. —A wasteful practice in packing houses, is to throw away pickle as soon as the meat is cured. ”

“ Under present methods, fresh pork product is shipped to England and delivered in good condition to the consumer.
The important step in the evolution of “all-the-year packing” from “winter packing” was the introduction of the refrigerating machine, and in packing houses today little or no regard is paid to the outside temperature. Another great advantage is the transportation facilities now available. When killing hogs in large quantities the fresh pork product is sold [252] fresh and consumed as such, and a much greater revenue is derived than when salted as formerly, and sold as cured meats. ”

“ Pack′-an′imal, a beast of burden used to carry goods on its back; Pack′-cinch (-sinsh) , a wide girth of canvas, &c., having a hook and ring attached for adjusting the load of a pack-animal; Pack′-cloth, a cloth in which goods are tied up: packsheet; Pack′er, one who packs: one who cures and packs provisions: any device to fill the space between the tubing and the sides of an oil-well, &c.; Pack′et, a small package: a ship or vessel employed in carrying packets of letters, passengers, &c.: a vessel plying regularly between one port and another (also Pack′et-boat, Pack′et-ship, &c.) ”

“ In packing we aim to use the kind of package the market demands. The crop this season was all barreled. The pickers have been on the job long enough so that they are as able to discriminate as to what should go into a barrel and what should not as I am myself. However, our system is to always have about twice as many barrels open ready for the apples as there are pickers. ”

“ Before the modern packing house was established the method in vogue was to either ship by car or drive live stock to the point of consumption, where it was slaughtered and put on the market in a crude and expensive way compared with the methods of to-day. In the evolution of the business the first step toward making the modern packing house was the concentration of live stock at a few markets where it was offered for sale. ”

“ Then I undid my parcel, packed as much food into it as I possibly could, and lashed it up again in its tarpaulin. I found a few reins and straps in one of the lockers, so I made shoulder-straps of them, and buckled my package to my shoulders. My last preparation was to fill a half-pint glass flask (every man aboard carries one or two of these) . Just as I replaced its stopper, we swept into the jobble; the lugger filled on one tack, and lay over, and the spray of a wave came over us. Then we righted suddenly, came up into the wind with our sails slatting, and made a stern-board. ”