534 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



wood, holly, tupelo, and yellow poplar. Red gum is not 

 quite so white as some of the others, but it is highly 

 satisfactory and is much used by makers of boxes which 

 display lettering. 



Every freshly-cut 

 wood gives off an 

 odor, but the intensity 

 of the odor diminishes 

 as the wood seasons. 

 The man who expects 

 to ship food products 

 in wooden containers, 

 must choose the wood 

 carefully to make sure 

 that no injurious odors 

 will be imparted to 

 the contents. All foods 

 will not absorb odors 

 from the wooden con- 

 tainers, even when such 

 odors are strong; nei- 

 ther are all odors con- 

 sidered objectionable. 

 Judgment on each 

 must be passed sep- 

 arately. 



In some instances a 



HBMMBBUIM 



FRUIT TRAYS 



This product belongs in the category of boxes, and their manufacture is a big busi- 

 ness in the far western states where the sun furnishes heat for drying fruit. Rains 

 are unlooked for, but if a suspicious cloud appears, the trays of fruit are hurriedly 

 stacked, one on another as a protection against a wetting. 



were of the opinion that plug tobacco should be shipped 

 in no box that was not made of sycamore ; but several 

 other woods are accepted now, among them being red 



gum. Two hundred 



years ago in Virginia 

 and Maryland, it was 

 believed that cured to- 

 bacco should be ship- 

 ped or stored in no 

 wood except yellow 

 poplar. At the present 

 it is quite widely be- 

 lieved that butter is 

 better if it touches no 

 wood but ash ; and a 

 similar notion obtains 

 regarding tea, which, 

 it is claimed, ought to 

 be shipped and kept in 

 the Chinese wood in 

 which the orientals 

 pack it, and which 

 bears the Chinese seal 

 and stamp as a guar- 

 antee that both tea and 

 wood are genuine. The 

 notion might lose some 



^c. 



ALIFORNIA 



wood's odor adds value to the article shipped in the -isi its popularity if it were generally known that the 

 package. Cigars in Spanish cedar boxes afford a good '.wood of which the tea boxes are made did not grow 

 example. The cedar's odor is very pronounced, and for' ' nearer China than several thousand miles. Some of it 

 that reason the wood is sought by manufacturers of comes from Russia, some from Maine, some from else- 

 cigars. Nearly half of all the cigar box wood used where, but the boxes, or the material of which they are 



in the United 

 States is Span- 

 i s h cedar. 

 Southern red 

 cedar and in- 

 cense cedar of 

 California pos- 

 sess strong 

 odors, which 

 have never 

 been popular 

 with smokers 

 though they 

 are liked by 

 users of lead 

 pencils. 



Certain 

 woods possess 

 taste as well 

 as smell, and 

 the box maker 

 must bear that fact in mind or run the risk of dis- 

 pleasing shippers, particularly those who handle plug 

 tobacco. That article has an exceedingly rank smell 

 and taste of its own, and it is also highly colored ; yet 

 it is easily injured by the stain, taste, or odor absorbed 

 from the caddy in which it is packed. Dealers once 



FORERUNNER OF THE BATTLE TANK 



This caterpillar tractor is hauling a load consisting of 190 raisin "sweat" boxes, weighing approximately 

 fifteen tons, in the Paul Driver Vineyard, Dinuba, California. The boxes are for curing raisins, not 

 shipping them. This motor was the model after which the battle tanks in Europe were patterned. 



formed, is sent 

 to China by 

 European or 

 American tea 

 merchants, and 

 all that the 

 Chinese have 

 to do with 

 them is to 

 paste paper on 

 and in them 

 and stamp 

 them with 

 cryptograms, 

 and fill them 

 with tea for 

 foreign mar- 

 kets. 



Food pro- 

 ducts are only 

 one of several 

 classes of commodities which go to market in wooden 

 containers. Large quantities of dry goods are so shipped, 

 including clothing, cloth, millinery and shoes. The 

 boxes are usually large and the contents only moder- 

 ately heavy, and woods which are relatively light and 

 weak, such as white pine, spruce, cottonwood, fir and 



