HARVESTING AND MARKETING 135 



importance not because it is being more widely 

 used but because the box apple-growing centers 

 are delivering more fruit. In 1919 there were 

 actually more apples packed in boxes than in 

 barrels, due to a big crop in the West and a 

 light one in the East. In 1920 this condition 

 did not exist as the crop conditions were re- 

 versed and the barrel returned to its dominant 

 place in the market. 



Packing box apples is a job that starts away 

 out in the orchard before the trees come into 

 bloom. Boxed fruit, by common consent and 

 long trade usage, must be more perfect than 

 barreled stock. In fact the western growers 

 have built up a reputation for packing nothing 

 but absolutely perfect fruit in their extra fancy 

 grades and the public has come to realize that 

 when it buys a box of western apples it will get 

 one hundred per cent, perfect fruit. It is a 

 strictly vegetarian package. 



Some eastern growers attempted to use the 

 box package and adapted it to eastern stand- 

 ards as they apply to the barreled apples. The 

 consequence was that the public resented the 

 finding of imperfect apples in a box and a buy- 

 er's strike resulted which injured the eastern 

 box apple trade more than can be estimated. It 

 is just as possible to grow box grade ap- 

 ples in the East as in the West — the point is 

 that most growers do not. The few that have 



