32 BUSH-FRUITS 



PACKAGES AND MARKETING 



As the season of marketing approaches, an abun- 

 dance of packages, of a kind suited to the demands of 

 the market available, will be needed. Many styles of 

 crates and baskets are oifered, and it is sufficient to say 

 that some form of the standard thirty -two quart crate, 

 holding full dry measure quart baskets, is always to 

 be recommended. If a near -by market can be de- 

 pended upon to absorb the crop, a good, substantial, 

 well-made crate is desirable ; one which will make its 

 lightness and durability of value in the repeated hand- 

 ling. On the other hand, if fruit must be shipped 

 some distance, there will be an inevitable loss of crates 

 and baskets, and it may be found better to use gift 

 crates altogether, or at least one which is cheap enough 

 so that the loss of those which never find their way 

 back will not be seriously felt. 



A very cheap and satisfactory crate was fully de- 

 scribed several years ago by E. W. Reid, of Ohio,* and 

 is the style universally used in that vicinity. The 

 material is bought from the planing mill, sawed ready 

 for nailing together, and put up at home during the 

 winter. Being in small pieces, much of it can be cut 

 from cull lumber, which makes the price more rea- 

 sonable. I copy Mr. Reid's figures, together with the 

 estimated cost and directions for making. Here is 

 the cost of one hundred crates at that time in his 

 locality : 



*Popular Gardening, iii. 158. 



