THIRTY-THIRD BIENNIAL SESSION 
195 
Mrs. Lupton and m© for a ride along a lonely and unused country road. 
The car ran beautifully until about ten miles from Winchester when Mr. Lup- 
ton lost control of the car— he does this often — and ran into a tree, breaking 
the steering gear and bending the axle. Mr. Lupton worked until dark try- 
ing to repair it, but could not. He also ruined his new suit. Finally we 
started and walked home. Mrs. Lupton walked behind. Mr. Lupton walked 
ahead. I was awfully tired andMr. Lupton had to carry me. It began to rain.. 
The above is one hundred and fifty words. The other one hundred and 
fifty words are what Mr. Lupton said.” 
Yes, the imagination is a great thing, and we will therefore leave moist 
of the intricate and academic principles involved to your imagination, limit- 
ing the discussion primarily to existing conditions. Moreover I shall dis- 
cuss it chiefly from the legal end, having no great faith in bringing about 
reforms in any other way. 
Viewed from that standpoint, rather than the theoretical, the first part 
of the subject, viz., “The Essentials of Packing and Packages,” can be soon 
disposed of, both by a strict interpretation of the words, by the facts and by 
the common experience of half a century. To/ be essential a thing must be 
indispenslbie and absolutely requisite. There are, so far as I can see, but 
few absolute and compulsory essentials, legal or otherwise, relating either 
to the package or the packing. There are, however, certain qualified or 
conditional essentials relating to both. 
By conditional essentials, I refer to essentials with an “if” in them, or 
essentials dependent upon the presence of certain facts. For example, un- 
der the Food and Drugs Act, if a package is branded “Fancy;” the fruit in 
it must be fancy. It there is no mark upon the package, then the fruit may 
be anything from a cider apple up. In other words, the absolute necessity 
of having the fruit fancy is dependent or conditioned upon the fact of 
marking it fancy. In the case of the package, apparently the only absolutely 
essential elements are that it be strong enough and sufficiently large to 
contain the commodity, and that the quantity of the contents be stamped 
upon it as provided by the amendement of March, 19X3, to the Food and 
Drugs Act. 
The conditional essentials vary in different jurisdictions. It would be 
impossible at this time to cover the entire field and give the legal require- 
ments, both state and national, relating to both barrels and boxes. It is 
sufficient to say that the general principle governing thus far has been 
to create a standard and then to make provision for the use of other or 
different sizes when marked with the word “short” or with the actual or 
relative capacity of the container. Maine, instead of following this princi- 
ple, established two standards. There still remains, however, in that State 
the right of choice. There is, therefore, no absolute and single essential 
as to the size of the package. 
In the matter of the essentials of packing we have somewhat the same 
conditions. In the far west, California, Montana, Oregon and Washington 
have laws forbidding the sale or shipment of diseased fruit, but in the mid- 
dle west and east substantially everything raised may be packed, shipped 
