PACKAGES, TRAINING, POLLINATION 85 



package found favor in the Mississippi Valley much more 

 rapidly than in the Atlantic States. This was partly be- 

 cause the stand of drawers, which had been used in the 

 Mississippi Valley almost exclusively, was poorly adapted 

 for long distance shipping, and western growers ship 

 farther than eastern growers. By 1875, practically all 

 the berries from this region, except those sold in near 

 markets, were packed in gift crates. The sixteen and 

 twenty-four quart gift crates, with square or octagonal 

 boxes, developed in the Mississippi Valley. In 1875 

 twenty-four quart crates were used almost exclusively 

 in that region for long distance shipping; the crates 

 were returned but the boxes were not. The northeastern 

 states always have preferred the thirty-two quart size, 

 or larger, until quite recently. 



In the East, the inconveniences of return packages 

 were endured much longer, partly because markets were 

 closer and partly because gift packages cost more. In 

 1893 a good return crate cost forty cents in Delaware and 

 a gift crate thirty-two cents; gift boxes cost S4.00 a 

 thousand. That year, several bodies of eastern fruit 

 growers adopted resolutions condemning the gift crate. 

 The sixty quart return crate was used in the Norfolk 

 district as late as 1902. 



The numerous disadvantages of the return package 

 eventually forced nearly all sections to adopt the gift 

 package. The grower was obliged to have enough crates 

 for a week's picking, as he never could be sure that the 

 crates would be returned promptly. When he shipped 

 to a large commission house, rarely did he get back as 

 many crates as he sent and the crates of different shippers 

 nearly always were mixed. The retail grocers generally 

 threw the empty boxes into one big pile. When the 



