THE FRUIT PACKAGE 



If there is one thing more than any other pecuUar 

 to the American fruit business, it is the American fruit 

 package. Growers and shippers seldom realize this 

 fact, and almost never grasp the full significance of it. 



I. THE AMERICAN FRUIT PACKAGE 



The characteristics of the American fruit package 

 are cheapness, neatness, lightness, and uniformity. 

 The packages must be cheap, because they are nearly 

 always given away with the contents. The use of the 

 gift package is elsewhere pointed out to be peculiar to 

 the American trade. The American package is the 

 neatest and most alluring that can be devised, for its 

 attractiveness is largely depended on to sell the fruit. 

 It is light and easily handled, a quality required when 

 fruit is shipped in large quantities or when the pack- 

 ages themselves are manufactured and shipped by 

 thousands. The American package is the only one 

 which lays any claim to uniformity, and this claim is 

 asserted with some reason. There are still many 

 ' ' short ' ' barrels in the apple trade, and there is much 

 complaint, partly legitimate, of false bottoms in straw- 

 berry boxes, and the ' ' five-pound ' ' grape basket 

 sometimes holds a scant four pounds of fruit; yet 

 after allowing for all the fully understood short pack- 

 ages, and for all intentional fraud, it is still true that 



73 



