84 THE STRAWBERRY IN NORTH AMERICA 



The first gift packages. — John Knox, of Pittsburgh, 

 was the first to use a gift package. In 1861 Thomas 

 Meehan pleaded for "cheap gift boxes, which the buyer 

 can destroy after emptying, as does the London pleasure 

 seeker the pottle of strawberries he bought at London 

 bridge before taking the excursion boat to Gravesend." ^ 

 The following year Knox introduced his "Pittsburgh" 

 box, which was square and made of veneer. A gift crate 

 holding fifty-four pint boxes cost eighty cents. The 

 "Beecher Patent Basket" was introduced the same year; 

 this was round, made of pasteboard and cost SI. 00 a 

 thousand. In 1863 Knox said, "I market in boxes hold- 

 ing pints and quarts. These are packed in crates holding 

 24 quarts or 54 pints." ^ 



At his annual strawberry exhibition, in 1868, Knox 

 offered a prize of SI 00 "for the best type of gift box." 

 The competition developed this fact : ^ " Two distinct 

 classes of boxes are demanded by growers and furnished 

 by manufacturers ; a cheap or gift box, to be given away 

 with the fruit, and a better or stronger article to be 

 returned by the dealer or consumer." By this time the 

 pioneer manufacturers of return boxes, Hallock and Colby, 

 of Queens, New York, were making gift packages also ; 

 and the "Burlington Free Fruit Box" was on the market. 

 This was introduced by J. Churchman, of Burlington, 

 New Jersey. It was made of wood veneer in two pieces, 

 and put together without glue or nails ; shipped in the flat, 

 it cost $10 a thousand quarts.^ 



Slow adoption of gift packages in the East. — The gift 



1 Gardeners' Monthly, 1861, p. 209. 



2 Kept. Mo. Hort. Soc, 1863, p. 39. 

 3Rept. Ohio Hort. Soc, 1868, p. 27. 

 4 Country Gentleman, 1866, p. 222. 



