206 Appendix. 



It is one of the pretty points about the box package that the exact 

 number of apples contained is always known, and, if stamped on the box, 

 as it should be, gives information much appreciated by the buyer. 



The "diagonal pack" (also variously called the "pear," "orange," 

 and "diamond," though these names are more pi'operly applicable to the 

 "offset pack") is so called from the diagonal or oblique course taken by 

 the rows. It is used for sizes intermediate between those suitable for 

 the straight packs, and by some growers for all apples as far as possi- 

 ble which are wrapped. It should be used in preference to the straight 

 pack whenever practicable, since the opposing of apples to spaces in 

 successive layers protects them from bruises better than the straight 

 style. Only two kinds of the diagonal pack are commonly used, the 

 thi'ee-and-one-half and four-and-one-half tier, so named from the num- 

 ber of apples required to reach across the box. The former will go 

 sixty-four, seventy-two, or eighty apples to the box; the later 150 or 

 175. No other numbers are necessary or desirable. 



The "offset" or "orange" pack (Figure 9, at right) is similar to the 

 diagonal — in fact, may be considered the diagonal with the rows running 

 lengthwise (Figure 9, box at right.) 



THE OPERATION OF PACKING. 



A few years ago the crop of potatoes in the East was immense. 

 Colorado, as usual, had raised many thousands of sacks, but found the 

 price so low that it would scarcely cover the freight charges. In this 

 emergency "the man of the hour" appeared in the person of a grower 

 who packed his potatoes carefully, put them up in neat ten-pound sacks 

 "with an attractive label, and sent them on to Chicago. A fancy price 

 was asked, but the stuff went off with a rush, and netted the grower 

 the highest returns he had ever received. Cases similar to this are 

 known to most farmers. Very often the manner in which fruit or 

 vegetables are put up has more influence on the price than quality itself. 

 Some of the details given below as essential to a first-class pack will 

 seem to many needlessly elaborate, or merely fussy, but there is plenty 

 of experience to show that they all pay handsomely. It is a little easier 

 and cheaper not to line the boxes, use layer papers, or wrap the fruit, 

 yet trifles like these make perfection — and fat pocketbooks. 



The first item in a perfect pack is a clean box. As cooking recipes in 

 old books sometimes quaintly begin — "Take a clean sauce pan," so the 

 directions for packing apples might appropriately begin with — "Take a 

 clean box." Get nice white box material and keep it clean. After 

 placing the box upon the supports at the side of the packing table, 

 which permit it to incline conveniently toward the packer (Figure 18,) 

 the lining paper is put in. Lining papers are of cheap, soft stock, in 

 width slightly less than the length of the box, and about twenty-six 

 inches long. One sheet is required for each side, the two overlapping 

 generously in the bottom of the box, enough being left outside to fold 

 over the top (Figures 7 and 18.) To prevent tearing along the bottom 



