BASKETS AND CBATES. 89 



given more annoyance and caused more irritation than 

 perhaps any one thing connected with the marketing of 

 peaches. Shippers insisted upon their return. Com- 

 mission men engaged to do so, and required a deposit 

 from every retail dealer equivalent to the price of the 

 baskets in order to insure their return. This deposit 

 was sometimes greater than the value of the basket, 

 and if it never came back the purchaser suffered loss. 

 Then, again, the baskets were a source of annoyance to 

 the draymen whose business it was to hunt them up and 

 deliver them to the proper parties. The railroad men 

 gave themselves very little trouble to deliver at the 

 proper points, and sometimes the baskets belonging to 

 one station were left at another ; and, even if they did 

 reach the proper station, those of different shippers would 

 be so mixed up that it was very troublesome to separate 

 them so that each could have his own. The whole 

 system of return of baskets involves so many petty 

 annoyances and losses that the more intelligent and pro- 

 gressive planters now favor the sale of the basket with 

 the fruit. In this way they get rid of all these draw- 

 backs and causes of irritation, which have been such a 

 worry for these many years. And on the score of mere 

 profit and loss they have come to the conclusion that it 

 pays to sell the basket with the fruit. In the first place 

 the basket is inexpensive, and it is contended that more 

 sales are made and at better prices when the baskets have 

 not to be returned. Many people would rather pay five, 

 or even ten, cents a basket more without any obligation 

 to return. They regard it both as an annoyance and an 

 imposition. Besides, in the opinion of many, fruit sells 

 better in a fresh neat basket than in a soiled old one. 

 In these views the growers are confirmed by the universal 

 voice of the commission men, some of whom do not 

 hesitate to say that fruit sold in new baskets, and with 

 them, will bring more tnan twofold the price of the 



