54 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
with brick steps leading up the slope of the terrace. Some 
good topiary-work, in privet, tree-box, or yew, might be 
worked into approaches, while behind the building, a back¬ 
ground of mixed evergreens should be judiciously placed. 
A certain land-company for whom the writer designed 
much this sort of an office outlined their name in small 
electric lamps on one of the beams; at night, this formed an 
exceedingly effective sign. 
Should the office shown here be too small, it can, of 
course, be readily widened without any sacrifice of beauty. 
What will this cost? 
Indeed, that’s an extremely difficult question. In some 
localities, mechanics get $i per hour, in other places. 
equally good men get only 17L2 cents for the same length of 
time. Lumber, sand and stone cost all sorts of prices, and 
so it’s perfectly possible that you, Messrs. A, B, and C, may 
build this office for $300 or even less, while you, Messrs. X, 
Y, and Z, may find the contractor demands $1200 or more! 
Probably an average of $600 would be fairly correct, in the 
neighborhood of the large eastern cities. However, the 
drawings shown here are all m ade to scale; even the half-tone 
drawing is laid out accurately at 16 feet to the inch. Why 
not, then, show this page to some local builder? He can 
give a very close preliminary estimate; much closer, at all 
events, than any more “average” estimate, good for the 
whole United States! 
COMPARISON OF BOX AND BARREL 
S. W. FLETCHER, Director Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station 
1. Quantity of Fruit —It is probably true that the 
box is a more convenient quantity of fruit for the “ultimate 
consumer,” who has recently received so much attention by 
tariff makers, than the barrel. Over 30 per cent, of our 
population now live in cities, and the percentage of city 
dwellers is increasing with each census. A majority of the 
city and town people, constituting the main market for 
fruits, have no cool cellar in which fruit can be stored. 
Their storage facilities are limited to the refrigerator. They 
wish to buy only such a quantity of fruit as will keep, at the 
ordinary temperature of the house, while it is being used. 
Under such conditions the box is a more convenient package 
than the barrel. A large basket of the Climax type, holding 
about a peck, would be more convenient still, especially for 
summer and autumn apples. 
On the other hand, there is a large demand for apples in 
bigger bulk,—not only because of the custom of years, but 
also for the winter supply of those who have a cool cellar, 
and for export. Certain varieties carry better across the 
water in barrels, than in boxes, because the latter packages 
permit the entrance of salt air. 
2. Cost of Package —On the Pacific Coast, apple boxes 
cost from six cents to nine cents, knocked down. As three 
boxes can be packed out of one barrel, at that price the 
boxes are cheaper than the barrel. In the East we pay 
from eleven cents to twenty-one cents per box. In Vir¬ 
ginia, boxes cost ten cents to twelve cents; m Minneapolis, 
Minn., fourteen cents; while Mr. Robert Brodie of Montreal 
states that his boxes cost twenty-one cents. The price o.f 
barrels in the East, this fall, ranges from thirty cents to 
forty-five cents,, with an average of about thirty-five cents. 
Bought knocked down in car load lots, they have cost cer¬ 
tain growers twenty-eight cents to twenty-nine cents. The 
inferior quality of some eastern-made boxes, as noted 
previously, should also be considered. The comparative 
cost of barrels and boxes is a local problem, and each grower 
will have to get estimates. 
3. Grading and Packing —The fundamental differ¬ 
ence between the two types of packages is here; The box 
encourages, and almost enforces, honest and uniform grad¬ 
ing, while the barrel permits carelessness in this respect. 
The cost of packing is also an item. AYhere a very large 
quantity of fruit is packed by specially trained men, it costs 
little if any more for labor to pack in boxes than in barrels. 
But the small grower, and especially one who has been 
accustomed to the barrel pack, will find that it costs from 
one-third to one-half more to pack in boxes than in barrels. 
It should be noted, also, that very small, or otherwise 
inferior fruit seldom if ever yields as high returns in the box 
pack as in the barrel pack. Only the large sizes go well in 
boxes. It is a question for each grower to decide, whether 
he can get more by sorting out his fancy and No. i stock for 
boxing, and selling the smaller fruit in barrels, than to sell 
all in barrels as No. I’s. 
Another point to be considered is the shape of the fruit. 
It is almost imperative that box fruit should be quite regu¬ 
lar in shape. Lop-sided and mis-shapen fruit, like the 
York, especially from young trees, would not pack well in 
boxes. 
The most important point under this heading, however, 
is that no one has ever succeeded with the box pack using 
common stock. Only fancy and No. i fruit of the best 
quality has paid in boxes. By intensive, methods, and 
especially by thinning the young fruit on the trees, many of 
the best western growers have been able to produce fruit, 
ninety-five per cent, of which is fancy. Practically all of 
the Hood River fruit is box fruit. I doubt if, on an average 
thirty per cent, of the apple crop of Virginia, or Ontario, or 
any other part of the East, is box or fancy fruit. This 
point must be kept emphatically in mind when the sugges¬ 
tion is made that the box should become the exclusive apple 
package of the East, as it is now in the West. 
4. Quality of Fruit —Of far less importance than the 
grade of the fruit in the package, in respect to the question 
before us, is its quality. It is a fact, however, that the box 
fruit that has commanded the highest prices is mostly of 
