PAPERS ON BIOLOGY AND AGRICULTURE 101 



i b) Hampers 



In the case of hampers which are used for shipping vege- 

 tables such as sweet potatoes, the staves are veneered, each 

 one being 24 inches long. The bottom is made out of two 

 half circular boards joined together with a staple, these 

 bottoms being made out of the "cores" left by the circular 

 veneer machine. It will be understood that when the logs 

 are clamped in the machine and revolved for the taking off 

 of the hamper staves, that a core is left in the center which 

 may be six inches in diameter. These are split with saws 

 and this is the material used for the bottoms of hampers 

 and berry boxes. 



Hampers are made on automatic machines, the staves be- 

 ing fed into the machine with the two nai-row flexible strips 

 which after being stapled will hold it all together. Good 

 operators when speeding up with these automatic stapling 

 machines can turn out 150 hampers per hour. Another foiTn 

 of package turned out by the mills and in large demand for 

 shipping peaches and tomatoes is the popular four basket 

 crate, the baskets nesting in a sort of box made from ve- 

 neered strips, while some turn out small baskets used for 

 shipping cantaloupes and cucumbers. 



(c) Egg Crates 

 Main Brothers, Kamak, Illinois, specialize in the manu- 

 facture of egg crates or cases, the woods used for that pur- 

 pose being mostly black gum and cottonwood. Most of the 

 veneer mills find it profitable to have a saw mill in connec- 

 tion so that they can put some logs into lumber, and Main 

 Brothers are large producers of cypress lumber. (Fig. 11.) 



The Present Tendency in the Package Industry and 



Necessity of a Local Supply of "Softwoods^' 



for Veneer Purposes. 



Since Southern Illinois is a fruit and vegetable country, 



we believe it to be very essential for the prosperity of those 



industries that there should be a local supply of bottomland 



timber, such as elm, sycamore, cottonwood and gum, for the 



making of packages for shipping fruit and vegetables. This 



is a point which we believe those companies adding to their 



acreage of orchards are not appreciating as they should. 



