246 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



he can get more by sorting out his fancy and No. 1 stock for boxing, 

 and selling the smaller fruit in barrels, than to sell all in barrels as 

 No I's. Another point to be considered is the shape of the fruit. It 

 is almost imperative that box fruit should be quite regular in shape. 

 Lopsided and mis-shapen fruit, like the York, especially from young 

 trees, would not pack well in boxes. The most Important point under 

 this heading, however, is that no one has ever succeeded with the 

 box pack using common stock. Only fancy and No. 1 fruit of the best 

 quality has paid in boxes. By intensive methods, and especially by thin- 

 ning the young fruit on the trees, many of the best western growers 

 have been able to produce fruit 95 per cent of which is fancy. Prac- 

 tically all of the Hood river fruit is box fruit. I doubt if, on an 

 average, 30 per cent of the apple crop of Virginia, or Ontario, or any 

 other part of the east, is box or fancy fruit. This point must be kept 

 emphatically in mind when the suggestion is made that the box should 

 become the exclusive apple package of the east, as it is now in the 

 west. 



4. Quality of Fruit. — Of far less importance than the grade of the 

 fruit in the package, in respect to the question before us, is its quality. 

 It is a fact, however, that tbe box fruit that has commanded the 

 highest prices is mostly of varieties of high quality — Winesap, Spitzen- 

 burg, Newtown. But other varieties, even some of very indifferent quality, 

 have been sold in the box package to great advantage, showing that 

 the style of package and the grade of fruit, rather than ts flavor, are 

 the deciding factors. However, the general experience has been that 

 the better quality of the fruit, the more apt it is to pay in the box 

 pack. If varieties of inferior quality pay in the box pack, it is because 

 the style of package and the grading outweigh the deficiency in quality. 



Experience With the Box Package in East. 



Having in mind the essential difference between the box and the 

 barrel trade, it does not seem strange that most of the attempts to use 

 the box in the east have not resulted saisfacorily. It is probably near 

 the truth to say that eight out of every ten trials of the apple box 

 in the east have been unsuccessful. A notable example is an experiment 

 by the field pomologist of the United States Department of Agriculture, 

 Mr. W. A. Taylor, several years ago. He sent abroad during two 

 seasons, eight carloads of carefully graded boxed Baldwin, York and 

 Newton, but with indifferent results as compared with barrels. There are 

 many possible reasons for these failures. 



1. Custom. — Custom is hard to change, and the box package is an 

 innovation in the east. As a rule, eastern buyers and grocers do not 

 look forward with favor upon the box, partly because the profits in 

 repacking and selling a barrel of indifferently packed apples are apt 

 to be greater than in handling three well packed boxes. If the producer 

 could deal direct with the consumer it would be different. There is 

 no doubt but that a majority of the consumers prefer the box, or a 

 smaller package, if the fruit did not cost much more. 



