Sizes of Packages. 465 



package for peaches and other tender fruits was 

 commonly used. Peaches were shipped almost wholly 

 in bushel baskets. With the increase and speciali- 

 zation of the business, however, smaller packages 

 were in demand, and in some of the largest peach 

 regions of the country, the product was finally 

 shipped in fifth and sixth -bushel baskets. Now that 

 the production has come to be enormous, however, 

 and the returns to the individual grower are com- 

 paratively light, there has again arisen a demand 

 for the large package. All this is well illustrated 

 in the Lake Michigan region, in which the bushel 

 basket has recently come into great use. The prob- 

 ability is that if the low price of grapes continues 

 for a few years, there will arise a great demand 

 for a larger package. The individual grower who 

 has a special market to reach, however, will still 

 find that the small package is as useful as ever, 

 and it may perhaps have an added advantage be- 

 cause of its contrast with the larger ones in com- 

 mon use. There is likely to be, therefore, a differ- 

 entiation in the use of fruit packages, tending upon 

 the one side towards a larger wholesale package, 

 and on the other towards a small retail and per- 

 sonal package. 



It should be said in passing that one reason why 

 the small package falls into disfavor is because the 

 fruit is so completely packed by hand that there is 

 a great temptation on the part of the grower to 

 include fruits of poor quality, or at least not to 

 keep up the standard of an arbitrary grade. When 



