The morning call., 1890-05-09
SPLINT BASKETS.
Their Manufacture and Manifold
Uses.
CuriOsities in Woed-Weaving-A Fast-Grow-
ing Understandable in Constant
Demand.

IL d mugs SaN-iUR up tub
incline of one of the Puget Sound mills and
60 out the other end perfect, square spar,
perhaps 100 feet long, big enough for the
mainmast of the biggest four-masted ahip
afoat, eXcites ones admiration from the
very bigness of the operation.
TO watch a section of a spruce log being
gradually whitfield down to the thirtieth of
an inch in thickness, till in twinkling
presto!-out comes a splint basket, all fin
ished and ready, strikes one as more in
genious from exactly an opposite stand
point-its made so small.
Aud what airy. handy. little things these
splint baskets are, and how useful and SEN
siDle in this land of fruit! AS yet the trade
in the splint, or. as it is called in the East,
the diamond basket ION occount of its being
woven diamond-shapedl, is in its infancy
on the Coast. Californians have been SO
long accustomed to importing them that
they have not yet learned the fact that they
can buy better article at their doors of
home make. Although in a transition
state, that the trade is growing fast is
shown by the fact that the last twelve
months has brought an increased demand
for the local makes of 100 per cent.
VARIOUS USES OF THE BASKET
The wood used is mostly Oregon spruce
and laurel-really the Oregon myrtle-the
only suitable woods procurable at anything
like decent price. Oak, black ash, elm
all would do equally well, but would cost
too much. 1t is big mistake some people
make in supposing that the splint basket is
only used for fruit Why, its uses are be-
yend number.
AS a narket-basket, as a lunch-basket it
Is simply perfection. For grocers' and
butchers delivery baskets, for laundry pur-
poses. and even as a wood basket, in differ
ent shapes and makes, it is hard to beat.
linen, where can you find anything neater
looking Tor waste-paper baskets? There is
some kind of s0-caled satchel, with lid
and handles. which slip down either side,
from to 10 inches long and about as deep.
There are open baskets for marketing
purposes with no lid, made In six sizes,
double-cover baskets again with upstand-
Ing handles and SO on. Then there are
hampers for sOiled linen and all sorts Of
household uses, from Is inches square and
rs inches high TO 20 inches square and IS
inches high and lots of light, handy-looking
possibilities that one has to see the manu-
facture of to appreciate.
Then there are stave baskets made of
these same light slaves, but not woven, for
frnit-pickinC, and bushel baskets for gem
eral farm purposes, such as feeding grain,
gathering potatoes or corn in, etc, but ali
made out OF these willowy strips of whit
tied spruce that do not seem as strong-to
look at-as strip Of paper.
A SPECIALITY FOR FRUITS.
But the splint fruit-baskets are the ones
always in demand; the bigger ones for
packing peaches and grapes in for shipping
East or over the Coast-for don't we ship
COCO to 5000 tons of grapes year in this
way?-the wee, tiny fellows for straw
berries, blackberries, raspberries, etc. The
capacity of these fruit-baskets will vary
from three-qarters OF q pound to twenty
eight pounds. The diminutive raspberry
basket, two inches deep, nestles costly in
the factory against monster pile of straw
beIry-baskets. of which there are three
styles. two fastened with tin and one with
nails.
The grape baskets hold from five pounds
upward, a style used in Chicago, with
cover, also manufactured here. BY the
way. the Californian and Chicago systems
of packing grapes for market differ in this
respect, thar here all separate baskets are
packed in crate and cover put ON the
crate, Willie there the grapes are all packed
in one covered basket and sent along inde-
pendently to market.
TT /.