Apples 95 



application in the irrigated sections of the West, although 

 on account of its adaptability, and the fact that it has 

 great advantages as the package for fancy fruit it is being 

 adopted in all of the Eastern fruit-growing sections. 



In the Western fruit-growing sections it is the only 

 commercial package for apples, and possibly always will 

 be, but in the East it is hardly possible that it will displace 

 the barrel as an exclusive apple package. This is for the 

 reason that in the Eastern states barrels can be had at a 

 price proportionately less than boxes. The barrel is a 

 hardwood package, while the box is of soft wood -and is 

 cheaper in the West on account of being closer to the 

 great forests of white pine and spruce. The box has been 

 adopted in the West, not only because it was the cheaper 

 package, but because it reduced the amount of damage to 

 the fruit in transit to the minimum, and also because it 

 was the only package that enabled the growers to put up a 

 uniform and a fancy pack. 



The sizes of these Western boxes have been varied 

 from time to time in an attempt to get the box to fit the 

 apple. But after a number of years experimenting, boxes 

 of only two sizes have been adopted. One of these is 

 known as the "standard," and is lO^xll^xlS inside meas- 

 urement, and contains 2,176 cubic inches without the bulge. 

 The "special" box is 10x11x20 inside measurement, contain- 

 ing 2,200 cubic inches without bulge, and is used for varie- 

 ties which run too long to pack in the standard box. 



The first essential in packing apples in boxes is to have 

 perfect fruit. Nothing but the very finest apples should 

 go into boxes in the Eastern states, and nothing grading 

 lower than "choice" is packed in the Western sections. 

 Packing tables having well-padded or canvas bottoms are 

 next in importance, and are so arranged that the packers 

 will have a rack sufficiently large to hold two boxes at a 

 convenient height in front of them for easy packing. A 

 cull box should be on the floor behind the packer, into 

 which the culls can be dropped as the fruit is sorted on 

 the tables. 



