46 Discussion of Industries 
Boxrs aNp Cratss, Packing 
Table No. 83 includes box shooks, packing boxes, piano and 
organ shipping boxes, packing crates, and all kinds of material 
used in the industrial establishments for the storage and ship- 
ment of factory products. New York is truly the Empire 
State in manufacturing, and naturally the demand for boxes 
and crating is enormous. The total annual output of the box 
factories in New York amounts to 324,219,000 feet. Among 
the secondary wood-using industries this one is now first in the 
State in point of quantity of wood consumed, having sur- 
passed the planing-mill industry by 94,000,000 feet in 1919. 
Adding the wood material put into “Baskets and Fruit 
Packages,” including baskets proper, berry crates, and pack- 
ages, the total output of wooden containers comes up to 332,- 
746,000 feet. These combined industries form a true index to 
the relative importance of New York in manufacturing, leay- 
ing out of consideration the cigar and tobacco box industry 
and the manufacture of cooperage. 
Table 3 shows the consumption of 29 different species of 
wood, the average cost of which delivered at the factory is 
$47.48 per thousand feet. Boxes and crates can be produced 
generally from low-grade stock. From the standpoint of wood 
utilization, this is one of the desirable features about modern 
manufacturing business. The enormous development of manu- 
factures has naturally resulted in the increased consumption 
of lower grades of lumber for boxes and crates. Frequently 
as much lumber is needed to crate a wooden article, such as a 
piece of furniture, as is used in making the article. The 
kinds and sizes of boxes and erates are so numerous that dis- 
cussion of their form is impracticable. Box material is gen- 
erally consumed in the vicinity of its manufacture, because 
freight rates discourage long hauls. Some of the Southern 
States, however, such as Virginia, produce large amounts of box 
material in the form of shooks that can be shipped in a knock- 
down form by carloads to great distances. 
The differences in the physical and mechanical properties 
of the various species are not so important in boxes and erates. 
