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 
EE 
