328 
ter bushel contains 2,150.42 cubic inches. 
The Canadian national apple box is 
obligatory for the export trade. The Col- 
orado box was designed originally for 
the “jumble” pack; the Northwest stan- 
dard and the special, for the “layer” 
pack. “The committee of the Northwest 
Fruit Growers’ Association on the matter 
of securing uniform apple packages, re- 
ported to the meeting at Portland in 1901 
in favor of using only the ‘standard’ 
and ‘special’ boxes. At the meeting the 
following year at Walla Walla the asso- 
ciation reaffirmed by resolution the adop- 
tion of these sizes, and urged all mem- 
bers to use the same.’* Up to this time 
there had been great confusion in the 
matter in the Northwest. Even as late 
as 1904 Mr. Maxwell Smith, Dominion 
Fruit Inspector at Vancouver, found no 
less than seven different sizes of apple 
box in the Seattle market. The only 
boxes now used in the American North- 
west are the standard and the special, 
and even the latter has all but gone out 
of use. 
Northwest Standard Box 
This was legalized in the state of Wash- 
ington in 1903 and in Montana in 1918. 
Two objections have been raised against 
this box. The first, from some Hastern 
fruit dealers, who are used to the barrel 
as the unit of measurement for apples, 
who believe that three boxes of apples 
should fill one barrel, and who variously 
state that it takes from three and one- 
eighth to three and one-quarter boxes of 
packed apples to pack one barrel. The 
other objection comes from some growers 
and packers in certain districts of the 
Northwest, and is one which they would 
still urge against any box, viz., that no 
one box is suitable for all counts of ap- 
ples, sized after the manner of the North- 
west. The answers usually given to the 
first of these objections are: (1) it is 
not necessary for the contents of a box 
to be a denominator of the contents of a 
barrel; (2) the packed box makes a 
heaped bushel, as can be seen by pour- 
ing the apples from a packed box into a 
* Note, page 7, University of Idaho Agricul- 
ture Experiment Station Bulletin 54, 1906, 
Lowell B. Judson, Picking, Packing, and Mar- 
keting the Apple. 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
bushel measure; (8) this is the only re. 
quirement which is founded on good rea. 
son; (4) the box apple is a product en- 
tirely different and separate from the bar. 
rel apple, and not to be considered or con- 
fused with it; (5) the inconvenience ang 
confusion which would arise among the 
packers of the Northwest at anv change 
in the package to which 10 or 15 years 
of use has accustomed them, would offset 
any inconvenience to the dealer in not 
being able to think always in denomina- 
tions of the barrel. Where the objection 
takes the form of a complaint that the 
Northwest Standard box does not con- 
tain a heaped bushel, or four pecks, the 
trouble is usually not with the box, but 
with the pack. If it cannot be done 
through rules of associations and con- 
tracts of dealers, legislation should en- 
force a firmness and fullness of pack, and 
a minimum weight for a box of each of 
the commercial varieties.* As influenced 
by the variety and size, a properly pack- 
ed box will weigh from 45 to 55 pounds 
gross. Ags to the second objection, name- 
ly, that the Northwest Standard box is 
not suitable for all sizes of apples, the 
elimination of the “square” pack and the 
adoption of the 113 and 125 counts of the 
“diagonal” pack, together with the favor 
with which the new system has been 
received by the trade, has demonstrated 
beyond a doubt the lack of necessity for 
the two box system. It should be stated 
that, whatever the size of an apple box, 
it should not be disproportionately long 
or narrow in shape. One will be im- 
pressed with this fact if he makes the 
rounds of the produce district in the 
city of New York contiguous to Pier 20, 
where the Northwest Standard is dubbed 
the “chunky” box, and is preferred to the 
special. The latter box, although real- 
ly containing more cubic inches, looks 
smaller, because slimmer. 
Box Specifications 
The standard specifications for the ap- 
ple box call for three-quarter inch ends, 
three-eighths inch sides, and one-quarter 
inch tops and bottoms. Thinner ends 
*See Canadian Fruit Marks Act, Sec. 6, 
under Law. 
