40 WOOD-USING INDUSTRIES OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



FRUIT AND VEGETABLE PACKAGES. 



The products of this industry comprise baskets and packages in which 

 fruit and vegetables are shipped and marketed. The growing custom 

 of selling provisions to the consumer in individual packages has in re- 

 cent years increased the importance of this industry in North Carolina. 

 The commodities are grape baskets, fruit baskets, berry cups, vegetable 

 cups, hoppers, barrels (veneer), and vegetable crates, and the business 

 of making them is confined to the Coastal region, where truck farming 

 and fruit growing is a thriving and rapidly-growing industry. 



The raw material is delivered to the basket maker in log form, and 

 this accounts for the low price paid as compared with the other indus- 

 tries. The price was $7.65 per M feet log scale, and was the lowest re- 

 ported by any of the twenty-one industries. It was 66 cents lower than 

 the price paid by excelsior makers, who buy their wood in the forms of 

 billets and poles. 



Six kinds of wood were reported, as shown in Table 14. The first 

 process of manufacture consists in converting the logs into sheets of 

 veneer, and a further process finishes the articles. The cores which 

 remain after the veneer is cut from the logs are largely sawed into thin 

 lumber and utilized for the covers and bottoms of barrels, hoppers, 

 baskets, etc., and for making light vegetable crates. 



In the quantity of wood consumed this class of manufacturers stands 

 seventh on the list of North Carolina's wood-using industries, while in 

 the amount of money paid for raw material it ranks ninth on the list. 



All of the wood used is grown in the State, and in board measure 

 amounts to 8,862,000 feet. Red and tupelo gum, the former being more 

 extensively employed, head the list for quantity. More red gum is cut 

 into veneers than any other wood, and a large percentage of it goes into 

 baskets, crates, and packages. North Carolina pine is second on the 

 list in the quantity used. As in the case of boxes, large sawmills often 

 manufacture fruit and vegetable packages as a side line. 



