PACKING AND MARKETING FRUITS 23 



much for the smallest family, and a neat square box 

 can be easily stowed even in a New York City flat. 



Experience has demonstrated that the apple box 

 has come to stay . It is bound to be used, and its use 

 will be extended. This does not mean, however, that 

 it will supplant the apple barrel. It certainly will 

 not do so, at least for many years to come. The 

 apple box must be used only for fancy grades of 

 !ruit. This is not so much because the package costs 

 more, as because the expense of selling it is some- 

 what greater and because the person buying a pack- 

 age of this kind expects it to contain something 

 ?ood. If the purchaser buys a box of apples and 

 :inds the fruit inferior, his resentment is much 

 greater than if he has been cheated on a barrel of 

 apples. Most purchasers have grown accustomed to 

 being more or less swindled on apples in barrels. 



A great many different boxes have been proposed. 

 These have been of different sizes, different forms, 

 and differently constructed. We seem to be settling 

 down rather rapidly, however, to a bushel box of 

 standard size and construction. This box, which is 

 now the most common, has the following inside di- 

 mensions: 10x11x20 inches. This gives a capacity of 

 2,200 cubic inches. A standard bushel contains 

 2150.42 cubic inches, so that the box furnishes a little 

 over the standard struck bushel (not a heaping 

 bushel). 



A somewhat larger box is rather commonly used 

 in Canada, but it is not to be recommended. 



These boxes are made with the ends of three- 

 quarter inch stuff, and with the top, bottom and 

 sides of lighter stuff. These last may run anywhere 

 from one-quarter to one-half inch, but three-eighths- 

 inch stuff is about right. 



There have been some experiments recently with 

 smaller boxes, especially with half bushel sizes. The 



