428 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



PACKING. 



The late Mr. E. Bean, of Jacksonville, Fla., was the 

 originator of the present package used for citrus fruits 

 in Florida, and it is perhaps not too much to say that 

 the influence of his work has been felt in every citrus dis- 

 trict in America. More than that, the rational methods 

 of packing and handling introduced by him have been of 

 paramount importance in the success of the industry and 

 have had a moulding influence on the methods of hand- 

 ling every other tree fruit in America. The following 

 letter from his pen, giving the interesting details of his 

 early experience, appeared in the Florida Agriculturist, 

 Nov. 7, 1900: 



"In compliance with your request for some reminis- 

 cences of the origin of the systematic handling of Florida 

 oranges, I will say that I arrived in Florida on Thursday 

 evening early in November of 1875, and on the following 

 Monday accompanied my brother-in-law, Mr. P. P. Bishop, 

 went to Fernandina 1 o attend a meeting of the Fruit Grow- 

 ers' Convention. During the meeting I introduced a reso- 

 lution making the 12x12x27 box the standard package of 

 the State. The resolution was adopted and the package 

 has been used since. I opened a packing house at Pa- 

 latka and commenced the use of them at once, having them 

 cut from cypress at Mr. Boyd's mill. The next year as 

 there were no veneer mills in Florida we ordered a cargo 

 from Maine. After securing the box it was necessary to 

 learn how to pack it so as to fill and make a solid pack. 

 This we found to be a difficult problem. We spent much 

 time in experimenting, sizing and learning how to place 

 the oranges in the box, eventually developing the 225, 200, 

 176, 146, 128, 96, 80 sizes, which with slight variations 

 have been used since. 



