THE BOX AS A MARKETING PACKAGE. 449 



THE BOX AS A MARKETING PACKAGE. 



A DISCUSSION. 



Prof. Wm. Robertson : I have heard quite a few statements 

 about honesty in the matter of marketing, and I can remember when 

 it used to be the custom to put the best wheat on top and put screen- 

 ings in the middle of the sack, besides a number of other cases just 

 as bad. The fact was brought to my mind when some one told how 

 the seed houses would steal flax from the farmers. The speaker 

 said a nice bushel box could be made sixteen inches square and eight 

 inches deep, and it will lack 100 cubic inches of holding a bushel. 

 (Laughter.) I believe that is one of the profitable features of mar- 

 keting : make the customer believe you are giving him big measure 

 and then building up on this basis. 



Mr. Code: I have not measured just exactly the size; I figured 

 it over hastily, but it was my impression that a box sixteen inches 

 square and eight inches deep would hold just a bushel, but after 

 thinking the matter over I believe I was mistaken. However, I be- 

 lieve in giving an honest bushel and an honest deal both in marketing 

 garden truck and fruit. 



Prof. Green : I want to say something in favor of this bushel 

 box. I like it very well. I wrote an article in favor of such a box 

 thirteen years ago. I came from eastern Massachusetts where ev- 

 erything is shipped in that bushel box sixteen inches square and 

 eight inches deep. (Applause and laughter.) That is the only kind 

 they use there. It is way ahead of the basket, and anybody who 

 has never used anything but a basket can realize its convenience. 

 You always have a square surface to pile other boxes on. Suppose 

 you want to pack a bushel box with tomatoes. You say they ought 

 to be the same all the way through. Apples ought to be faced, and 

 that is all right ; you ought to put your best foot forward. Now 

 when it comes to shipping a bushel of tomatoes I want to show you 

 how to pack them. Take a bushel box and take the bottom off so you 

 can lay it top down on a plank, then take your tomatoes and lay them 

 in layers, end up, and when you have your box filled up nail on the 

 bottom and put your hand under the top and tip it right back. Then 

 you have your bushel box right end up, and it shows off evenly and 

 nicely. The next layer below is even, and it makes a nice seller. 

 Your tomatoes put up in bushel boxes that way will sell for a higher 

 price than if put up in baskets. I often wonder why the market 

 gardener holds so long to the bushel basket. You get a load of 

 bushel baskets into a wagon, and I tell you it is a wiggly affair. 

 But you put on your wing boards and put on those boxes, and you 

 can stack them up three tiers high, and they will be perfectly solid. 

 You can build your load right up with those boxes and make a solid 

 mass of it, which you can't do with baskets. You can go anywhere 

 with it. A bushel basket is a regular old woman's package. It is the 

 same way in packing apples and other fruit ; if you use those bushel 

 boxes, you can make a neat and nice looking package. Then, it is a 

 package that cannot be broken so easily. I am v^ry glad to hear 

 this gentleman speak in favor of this bushel box. 



