32S 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



ter bushel contains 2,150.42 cubic inches. 

 The Canadian national apple box is 

 obligatory for the export trade. The Col- 

 orado box was designed originally for 

 the "jumble" pack; the Northwest stan- 

 dard and the special, for the "layer" 

 pack. "The committee of the Northwest 

 Fruit Growers' Association on the matter 

 of securing uniform apple packages, re- 

 ported to the meeting at Portland in 1901 

 in favor of using only the 'standard' 

 and 'special' boxes. At the meeting the 

 following year at Walla Walla the asso- 

 ciation reaffirmed by resolution the adop- 

 tion of these sizes, and urged all mem- 

 bers to use the same."* Up to this time 

 there had been great confusion in the 

 matter in the Northwest. Even as late 

 as 1904 Mr. Maxwell Smith, Dominion 

 Fruit Inspector at Vancouver, found no 

 less than seven different sizes of apple 

 box in the Seattle market. The only 

 boxes now used in the American North- 

 west are the standard and the special, 

 and even the latter has all but gone out 

 of use. 



\ortliwest Standard Box 

 This was legalized in the state of Wash- 

 ington in 1903 and in Montana in 1913. 

 Two objections have been raised against 

 this box. The first, from some Eastern 

 fruit dealers, who are used to the barrel 

 as the unit of measurement for apples, 

 who believe that three boxes of apples 

 should fill one barrel, and who variously 

 state that it takes from three and one- 

 eighth to three and one-quarter boxes of 

 packed apples to pack one barrel. The 

 other objection comes from some growers 

 and packers in certain districts of the 

 Northwest, and is one which they would 

 still urge against any box, viz., that no 

 one box Is suitable for all counts of ap- 

 ples, sized after the manner of the North- 

 west. The answers usually given to the 

 first of these objections are: (1) it is 

 not necessary for the contents of a box 

 to be a denominator of the contents of a 

 barrel; (2) the packed box makes a 

 heaped bushel, as can be seen by pour- 

 ing the apples from a packed box into a 



• Note, page 7, University of Idaho Agricul- 

 ture Experiment Station Bulletin 54, 1906. 

 Lowell B. .Tudson, Picking, Packing, and Mar- 

 keting the Apple. 



bushel measure; f3j this is the only re- 

 quirement which is founded on good rea- 

 son; (4) the box apple is a product en- 

 tirely different and separate from the bar- 

 rel apple, and not to be considered or con- 

 fused with it; (5) the inconvenience and 

 confusion which would arise among the 

 packers of the Northwest at any change 

 in the package to which 10 or 1-5 years 

 of use has accustomed them, would offset 

 any inconvenience to the dealer in not 

 being able to think always In denomina- 

 tions of the barrel. WTiere the objection 

 takes the form of a complaint that the 

 Northwest Standard box does not con- 

 tain a heaped bushel, or four pecks, the 

 trouble is usually not with the box, but 

 with the pack. If it cannot be done 

 through rules of associations and con- 

 tracts of dealers, legislation should en- 

 force a firmness and fullness of pack, and 

 a minimum weight for a box of each of 

 the commercial varieties.* As influenced 

 by the variety and size, a properly pack- 

 ed box will weigh from 4,5 to .55 pounds 

 gross. As to the second objection, name- 

 ly, that the Northwest Standard box is 

 not suitable for all sizes of apples, the 

 elimination of the "square" pack and the 

 adoption of the 113 and 125 counts of the 

 "diagonal" pack, together with the favor 

 with which the new system has been 

 received by the trade, has demonstrated 

 beyond a doubt the lack of necessity for 

 the two box system. It should be stated 

 that, whatever the size of an apple box, 

 it should not be disproportionately long 

 or narrow in shape One will be im- 

 pressed with this fact if he makes the 

 rounds of the produce district in the 

 city of New York contiguous to Pier 20, 

 where the Northwest Standard is dubbed 

 the "chunky" box, and is preferred to the 

 special. The latter box, although real- 

 ly containing more cubic inches, looks 

 smaller, because slimmer. 



Box Speciflcations 



The standard specifications for the ap- 

 ple box call for three-quarter inch ends, 

 three-eighths inch sides, and one-quarter 

 inch tops and bottoms. Thinner ends 



• See Canadian Fruit Marks Act Sec. C, 

 under Law. 



