Pomegranate size sorting slide - GIF

[neilbourjaily]

The bottom set are grape rings. Above the sets are various types of treefruit or onion sizers. They were used by inspectors and ground buyers.
Back in the day 16ths of diameter were a major part of the description along with bunch size, color, stretch (length), shatter (how many grapes were in the bottom of the lug, 23# plain pack, say) and, finally, taste. "These Thompsons are generally 12-13/16 with occasional smaller and many larger with good stretch, 1 1/4"+. The bunches are generally 3/4 lbs with a few 1#ers and an occasional 1/2 #er. They're creamy green to straw with no amber and good bloom (meaning the yeast hasn't been rubbed off by excessive handling). There's about 3/4 pound of shatter. They're crisp and sweet with low acid. No flabby grapes, No water berries." Now that was a description that could sell 1530 boxes of grapes, a 45' trailer load at 90 per pallet.
Of course, the truth would always be known when the back of the truck is opened! It never helped to lie. It was a time when 10s of 1,000,000s of boxes of fresh produce traded on the binding word of sellers and buyers. There were no written contracts. And everybody worked with the railroad and Western Union. WU abbreviations were much better thanthe text abbreviations of today. They had to be. 100s of $1,000,000 traded on them. Fresh produce was a cash business, and traders fought over nickels and dimes.
btw, the words: scattered, occasional, few, some, many, about half, most, generally, and nearly all all had specific meanings as to percentage of the pack.
Sorry, just a little reminiscing.