66 



They are box crates for carrying back and forth bottled goods and are made 

 of strong material. All that are used in Pennsylvania are not made in the 

 State. Many are shipped in from Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. 



The veneer box has recently made remarkable progress. The question of 

 saving in weight and the revenue from the sale of second hand boxes, which 

 lately is being given considerable attention by shippers, has helped the veneer 

 package. The single ply box, wire bound, competes actively with the fiber 

 shipping box but the progress these have made is not so surprising as that 

 of the three ply veneer box. In these the sides, top, and bottom are panels 

 built of three sheets of veneer with the grain transversing and well supported 

 with cleats of thick material. The panels are not only strong and light in 

 weight but the appearance of the single piece sides makes an attractive pack- 

 age. The glue pot enters as an important factor in their manufacture as a 

 good glue joint is the most essential requirement, and, if assured, panel 

 making is simple and makes both for economy and efficiency. Many more 

 of these boxes are shipped into Pennsylvania knocked down than are made in 

 the State. The panel makers are largely in the south where the stands of 

 cheap veneer woods, principally the gums, are easily accessible. 



White pine and basswood are the woods for dovetailed and locked corner 

 boxes and large quantities are annually demanded for their making. These 

 are small size containers but probably present the most attractive appearance 

 of any form of wooden packages. They are used for articles of food, pow- 

 dered substances, jewelry, etc., as the close joints make them more dust 

 and moisture proof. The dovetailed box requires no gluing but the locked 

 corner does. Both kinds are made in Pennsylvania, the latter in the largest 

 quantities. Boxes with the bevel joint corner are not made any more in large 

 quantities. Only a few manufacturers in Pennsylvania reported them. 



Shooks are knocked down boxes sold conveniently bundled to facilitate their 

 being assembled and nailed. Different from nailed boxes made and sold in the 

 same region, shooks are manufactured close to the source of the raw material 

 and sent over long distances to consuming centers. A large part of the boxes 

 used in Pennsylvania, but not made there, are brought in in shook form. 

 Shook making includes both shooks for boxes and knock-down crates. Rough 

 lumber of any thickness or kind used to do for crating, and the lumber yard 

 rather than the box factory was the source of the supply. Today the manu- 

 facturer shipping his wares in crates desires to express as much character in 

 his package as do those using box containers. In consequence, the shook 

 makers are called on for neat and attractively designed crates and like shooks 

 they are sold with the several parts bundled together, due attention having 

 been given to the size, kind, and thickness of the material in accordance 

 with the weight and character of the goods to be shipped in them. 



Another increasing use for crating is the growing tendency to crate articles 

 of steel, iron, and other infrangible metals which heretofore were shipped un- 

 boxed. This more especially applies to Pennsylvania than any other state 

 because of the number of industries manufacturing steel and iron products. 

 Massive parts of machinery and electrical apparatus, sheet steel, engines 

 and motors, parts of steel bridges, farm machinery, steam and hot water 

 radiators, stoves and ranges, galvanized iron goods, steel frames for street 

 cars, etc., are examples, and crating is intended more to prevent scarring 

 the finish than to protect from breakage. 



As Table 48 shows, the Pennsylvania box makers do not demand a few 

 kinds of wood greatly in excess of others. Nor do they use State-grown woods 

 in preference to lumber that comes from other timbered regions. There were 

 34 kinds of wood and the total of 11 were shipped in from other states. Of 



