Thinning, Gathering, Keeping, and Marketing. 115 



" The two pound boxes (of which I used about 20,000 the pasf 

 season) are of the same depth, made of the same material, and in 

 the same style as the one pound box. The body and top of the box 

 is pasteboard, with wooden bottom, about one-quarter-inch in thick- 

 ness, tacked and glued in. The square flat box is out of date, and 

 unsaleable in all our principal markets. 



" Our paper pockets are packed in good tight pine cases, two 

 dozen in a case, and make a very safe package for transporting to 

 any desired distance. The wooden cases are furnished with rope 

 handles for convenience of handling, and to prevent baggage-men 

 from turning over or placing on end. 



" A tight pocket and a tight case are desirable for transmitting 

 grapes to any distance or to any clime. I commenced shipping to 

 Charleston, S. C, in 1857, in perforated pockets and open crates, 

 thinking they would stand the sea voyage and hot weather better 

 than in close packages, but soon discovered my mistake, and have 

 ever since shipped in close pockets and cases." 



Packing Strawberries and other small Fruits. These should be 

 packed in small or shallow boxes, to prevent the injury caused by 

 placing large masses together. Several of these small boxes are 

 placed and secured within one large one. Two modes have been 

 adopted in constructing the small boxes. One is to make them 

 cheap, so that they may be given away with the fruit to the pur- 

 chaser ; the other is to make them firmer and with more finish, to be 

 sent back to the marketer. As the latter kind soon become stained 

 and soiled by repeated use, and much care is required to return 

 them, it is probable that a "gift-box" will be ultimately adopted. 

 Several modes have been already adopted for making them of thin 

 shaved wood, but further experiments are needed to determine the 

 best. 



A convenient, light, and cheap set of drawers, or flat boxes, for 

 conveying such firm-fleshed berries as currants, gooseberries, and 

 the more solid strawberries, or for holding the smaller boxes, 

 much used in portions of the West, is constructed in the following 

 manner : 



i. Prepare five drawers, each two feet long and twenty inches 

 wide, and two inches deep in the clear. It is best to have them 

 made of pine, three-eighths of an inch thick. It is most convenient 

 to have the stuff all sawed the same width, say two and a half inches 

 wide, and use it this width for the bottom, leaving them about one- 

 sixteenth of an inch apart for ventilation. The front and back sides 

 of each drawer should extend three-quarters of an inch beyond the 



