300 SUCCESS wirii small fkults. 



the introduction of the Wilson, all strawberries in that section 

 were picked and marketed without the hulls. 



" For a long time I have been trying to find out the originator 

 of the quart-berry-box and crate, and, thinking Mr. Hopper 

 might possess some knowledge on this point, I inquired of him. 

 He replied : ' I know nothing about the quart box, for I never 

 used them, but I do about the crate. 



" ' In 1840 I made the first crate ever used in our section, if 

 not in the State, and I will tell you how I came to do it. In 

 those days I raised large quantities of apricots, and marketed 

 them in such baskets as we happened to have. In the year 

 named my fruit was very large and finely colored, and knowing 

 they would be damaged by carting in the usual way, I had 

 a number of small baskets made, and then I constructed a crate 

 to fit them. The next day after I made them, Gen. Acker, who 

 was an old fruit grower, called on me, admired the arrangement, 

 and suggested that they would answer to pack berries in, and 

 requested me to make tVvO for him, which I did. From these 

 the use of them became general.' 



" The cases referred to were skeleton cases, some with and 

 others without lids, each grower making them to suit his own 

 convenience for handling ; but they generally contained from 

 one to two hundred baskets each. The number of baskets in 

 each was marked either on the hd or slat." 



From the above quotation, the reader can realize what 

 vast changes have taken place within the last fifty years. A 

 few sable peddlers, with little baskets strung on poles, form 

 a decided contrast with a Charleston steamer, bringing in 

 one trip North far more strawberries, in patent refrigerators, 

 than were then sold in a year ; or with an Old Dominion 

 steamship, discharging six thousand bushels as a single item 

 of cargo. Ninety-four car-loads of straw^berries have passed 

 over the Delaware railroad in one day. According to one 

 computation already given. New York consumes ^25,000,000 

 worth of small fruits annually. If the business has grown to 



