HANDLING AND STORAGE OF APPLES IN PALLET BOXES 



By Joseph F. Herrick, Jr., Stanley W. McBirney, 



U. S. Department of Agriculture 



and 



Earl W. Carlsen, Director 



Fruit Industries Research Foundation, Inc. 1_/ 



INTRODUCTION 



Apple producers and storage and packinghouse operators have shown great 

 interest in pallet boxes in the past 2 years. 



Pallet boxes are not an innovation for the handling and storage of 

 agricultural products. In 1944, studies were made in Colorado on their use in 

 connection with potatoes. One of the largest early users of pallet boxes is 

 located in Clear Lake, Iowa. This operator's entire crop of potatoes and 

 onions are conditioned, stored, and handled in pallet boxes. Results of studies 

 made there indicate that pallet boxes can reduce labor requirements and invest- 

 ment in facilities, and maintain the quality of the product. The pallet box 

 method of handling is rapidly spreading into use in packing and storage houses 

 for other agricultural products. 



During the 1952 harvest season personnel of Agricultural Research Service 

 and Michigan State University cooperated with a Michigan grower in constructing 

 six bulk boxes with end gates for handling Mcintosh apples for the fresh fruit 

 market. This work was expanded and during the 1955 season approximately 

 10,000 bulk boxes were used to handle about 300,000 bushels of Michigan apples. 

 Results of this work were published early in 1956. 2/ During the 1955-56 season, 

 USDA research on bulk harvesting of apples in pallet boxes in the Pacific 

 Northwest began at the Tree Fruit Experiment Station, Wenatchee, Wash., in 

 cooperation with the Washington Agricultural Experiment Station. This research 

 was designed to determine the effect of depth of fruit in a large container on 

 bruising or marking of the fruit. 



The 1956-57 season saw wider commercial adoption of pallet boxes in 

 Michigan. A grower in Washington also used pallet boxes for a small amount 

 of his crop during that season. 



This season, 1957-58, there has been greater use of pallet boxes for 

 harvesting, handling, and the storage of apples in Michigan and Washington. 



1/ Mr. Herrick is an agricultural economist in Transportation and 

 Facilities Branch, Marketing Research Division, Agricultural Marketing Service. 

 Mr. McBirney is an agricultural engineer, Harvesting and Farm Processing Research 

 Branch, Agricultural Engineering Research Division, Agricultural Research Service. 



2/ Gaston, H. P. and Levin, J. H. Handling Apples in Bulk Boxes. Mich. 

 State Univ. Spec. Bui. 409, April 1956. 



