"Pie fruit" is the lowest class of fruit. In peaches there are two grades, the unpeeled and the peeled, the latter bringing the higher price.

The " standard " grade of fruit ranks next. It has the lightest sirup and consists of the relatively inferior fruits in size, color, flavor, and texture.

"Extra standard," "extra," and "fancy" are terms applied to grades increasingly good. If fruits grade high as to variety, color, size, flavor, texture, and are packed in heavy sirup, they will be graded as Fancy, and fruits less good will fall into the other group grades according to the degree in which they approximate the grade called Fancy, and according to the weight of sirup used. That it is quite impossible under this system to depend on the term Fancy representing the same quality of fruit year after year is easily seen, for the crops yielded of various fruits are seldom of the same standard in successive years. The same is true of any grade. In a good year the trade known as Standard may prove better than the Extra Standard in a poor year. This makes for uncertainty on the part of the purchaser, and any buyer of large quantities of canned goods finds it necessary to see the contents of tins selected as samples and to order according to sample as well as by grade and trade name. The small buyer is at a great disadvantage in being unable to do this.

The trade terms for grades of vegetables are in general the same as for fruits. The poorest of southern-grown produce and the trimmings of northern-grown are graded below standard. In tomatoes these sub-standard grades are sometimes known as "pulp" and "puree." In peas they are known as "seconds" and "soaked." This last term refers to peas that have grown too hard for canning purposes, but have been soaked in water from twelve to thirty-six hours and then canned.