406 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



Many different kinds of clippers have been put on 

 the market, but those of the Weiss type, with rather thin, 

 curved blades, permitting close cutting of the fruit stems 

 are best. They can be obtained of any dealer in horti- 

 cultural supplies at a cost of about one dollar per pair. 



Field Boxes. Quite a number of different kinds of 

 field boxes are in common use in our citrus groves or 

 orchards. Some growers use the ordinary orange boxes, 

 those in which the fruit is to be shipped, filling them in 

 the grove, transporting them to the packing house and 

 then repacking them in the same boxes after curing, siz- 

 ing and wrapping. This method is very good where the 

 fruit has to be transported long distances to the packing 

 house, but there is danger of soiling the boxes and they 

 are somewhat awkward to handle. 



Convenient field boxes may be made from orange 

 boxes by providing them with handles by cutting a hand 

 hold through the ends two or two and a half inches down 

 from the upper edges. These cannot thereafter be used 

 for shipping fruit, but must be used entirely as field 

 boxes. 



A handy field box is illustrated in Fig. 85. Mr. W. S. 

 Hart, of Hawks' Park, Fla., who invented it, thus de- 

 scribes it in the Report of the Florida State Horticultural 

 Society for 1892: 



"The ends or heads are 1x10x12 inches, and have a 

 hand hold two inches down from the upper edge; on the 

 inside at the top is a half-inch rabbet, cut one-half inch 

 deep; and across the ends of the heads, except for one 

 inch up from the bottom is nailed a cleat, 1x1 1-2 inches. 

 This strip forms a stop at each end of the rabbet and also 

 prevents the heads from splitting. Just flush with the 

 bottom of the rabbet is nailed a half-inch cleat along its 



