INDIANA HOKTICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 431 



insist on coming in the cat and child would have to run for the fire escape. 

 Grocers and peddlers sell apples in the residence districts. The peddler's 

 stocli is usually a lot of culls, handled over and bruised until nearly worn 

 out. The grocer buys medium-grade barreled apples and sells them in lots 

 of two to four quarts, mixing in plenty of culls. With practically nothing 

 but such wretched specimens of the apple tribe within reach, it is not 

 strange that these people use few apples. What is required is a package 

 small enough for the average city family to use before becoming stale. 

 There is no better place to do this packing than where the fruit is grown 

 or at the point of shipment. The less apples are handled the better they 

 are. If packed on a farm where picked, and properly stored, there would 

 be no need of any extra handling, and the consumer might actually get 

 fruit with the bloom on, just as it came from the tree. Where this plan 

 has been tried in a small way good results are reported. There is no 

 doubt that when fruit growers get ready to put up their best apples uni- 

 formly and properly they will have no trouble in making connection with 

 dealers in the city who will carefully carry out their end of the plan. 

 Here is what Charles Forster, a New York apple man of wide experience 

 in foreign and domestic trade, says: 



"For the higher grades of apples the box is the coming package. 1 

 believe no one will make a mistake by packing his best apples in this 

 way. Our Spitzenburgs are selling as high as $3 to $3.50 per box. The 

 relative value in barrels is about the same, but at these prices one would 

 buy a box where he would not take a larger quantity, two-thirds of which 

 might spoil before they could be used." 



A Typical Box.— The inside dimensions are 20i^xllx9% inches. This 

 makes a cubic content of a trifle over an even bushel, and about six 

 quarts less than a heaping bushel. The ends are three-fourths-inch ma- 

 terial, and all four sides are one-fourth-inch hard pine. There is no parti- 

 tion, as in the orange box. The apples may be put in tightly, and the 

 thin springy sides hold them without bruising. The box is put together 

 with thirty-two rough wire nails 1%-inch long. The chief advantages of 

 this package are: Convenient size; strength, given by the solid ends and 

 secure nailing; and springy sides, permitting the apples to be crowded 

 in slightly and holding them firmly without bruising. Eastern fruit-grow- 

 ers' associations are becoming numerous and strong. This undeveloped 

 city trade may be theirs if they will establish uniform, convenient pack- 

 ages, put on labels that shall become guarantees of quality, and work sys- 

 tematically to get the goods introduced. This trade will never be worked 

 up by those who take a back seat and merely think about it. Get the 

 fruit to the consumer's door, let him see what it is, and he will be glad to 

 invite the boxed apple in and hand over his cash for it, for even at these 

 extreme prices fancy boxed apples are no higher proportionately than 

 piany other food stuffs which he buys.— W. W. H, 



