333 
H. A. DuBois & Son, Cobden. This firm specializes in fruit baskets 
and hampers, using about 150,000 board feet annually. The foregoing 
description of processes of making baskets and hampers (pp. 331, 332) 
was obtained on a visit to their mill. 
R. L. Lawrence, Cobden. This manufacturer buys most of his logs 
in the state, and ships his products to eight states. He uses about 150,000 
feet annually and turns out barrels, fruit crates, and fruit baskets. Staves 
for slack barrels can be made by the veneer process, but the price of 
barrels has advanced so much in this region within the last few years that 
it almost prohibits their use, so that smaller packages, like baskets and 
hampers, are being used. 
The Union Fruit Package Co., Anna. Mr. John C. DeWitt is the 
manager of this company, which is organized on a co-operative basis to 
furnish growers with strawberry boxes, four-basket crates, and other 
containers for fruits and vegetables. It uses about 100,000 board feet 
annually, the logs being purchased locally. 
‘Fruit Growers’ Package Company. This company has a mill at 
Jonesboro, and another located in the woods near Ware, not far from the 
toll-gate. They are among the largest manufacturers, in this region, of 
four-basket crates for peaches and tomatoes, melon crates, and many other 
kinds of packages for local and outside trade. Much of the material is 
cut during the winter months, and stored and allowed to season for 
assembling in the summer. 
Two other box concerns were found in this region, the Defiance Box 
Company, located at Ullin, with main office at Defiance, Ohio, making 
crockery crates; and the Dongola Box Company, at Dongola. 
NECESSITY FOR A LOCAL SUPPLY OF “SOFTWOODS”’ 
' FOR VENEER PURPOSES 
Since southern Illinois is a fruit and vegetable country, we believe 
it to be very essential to the prosperity of its business that there should 
be a local supply of bottomland timber, such as elm, sycamore, cotton- 
wood, and gum, for the making of packages for shipping fruit and vege- 
tables. This is a point which we believe companies adding to their 
acreage of orchards are not appreciating as they should. Some of the 
local mills see only a five years’ supply of local logs ahead of them, which 
means that when supplies of this kind have to be shipped from more 
distant points, the grower will have to pay more for them and this in- 
crease will have to be charged up to the consumer. 
Col. Greeley cites the fact that the supply of lumber for boxes is 
getting to be a very serious matter with the citrus growers in Florida. 
They use 12,000 boxes yearly, each requiring about 5% feet of lumber, 
while the shippers of truck-produce require about 13,000,000 additional. 
