Fulton County tribune. (Wauseon, Ohio) 1883-1925, 1921-07-28

ment of Agriculture
Standard containers for marketing
fruits and vegetables are of more in
terest to the average citizen than he
generally realizes. Not only is he de-
frauded frequently by the substitution
of short-measure packages at the full
measure price, which is Inevitable if
the difference in the size of the pack
ages is not easily detected, but also
the cost Of marketing is increased by
the greater expense OF manufacturing
a large number of unnecessary styles
and sizes and by breakage in transit,
sometimes directly attributable to the
difficulty of loading odd-sized con-
tainers. These losses constitute an
unnecessary tax on the fruit and
vegetable industry that the bureau of
markets, United States Department
of Agriculture, is endeavoring to cut
ard containers.
OId-Time Units Cause Confusion.
Local package units that Cnme into
use long ago are most largely re-
sponsible for present difficulties.
Such packages may have been salts
factory when their use was confined
to limited territory, but of late years
rapid transportation and the use of
special refrigerator and ventilator
cars have brought the products of
every section of this country into our
great marketing centers, where the di-
versity of styles and sizes of contain
ers have resulted in unnecessary con-
fusion.
There are in common use today
about 40 sizes of cabbage crates, 20
styles of celery crates, 80 lettuce
crates or boxes, so styles and sizes
of hampers, 10 styles and sizes of
round staye baskets, and market bas-
kets, varying in size from 1 to pa
| quarts, whereas relatively few stand
ard sizes would satisfy all the de-
mands of the trade.
The unfair competition of short
measure containers has been another
unsatisfactory factor Certain shrewd
packers have found that by slight
| notifications in the shape of pack
| ages the cubical contents can be re-
duced substantially without noticeably
affecting The appearance.
! Short-Measure Package.
! Commodities sold in these contain
ers can be offered ut a lower price per
package than those sold in standard
packages, but the price by unit of
weight is. of course, higher. Often
this has caused the general adoption
of the short-measure package, and
there is no end to this procedure, for
once the short measure is recognized
as the standard a still shorter one is
put out by an unscruplOus minority.
The six-quart market basket, the
14-quart peach basket, the seven
eighths-bushel bean hamper. and the
five-peck lettuce hamper are easily
confused with peck, half-bushel, bush
Ell and 115- -bushel baskets.
Another factor which has caused
the addition of many unnecessary
packages is the lack of a unit which
is accepted as the basis for all pack
age standards. If manufacturer
wishes to introduce crate into a pro
ducing section normally using the bar
rel instead of using the bushel unit
the tendency is to offer a barre
crate or half-harrel crate. At the pres
ent time the crates and boxes are be
ing manufactured in sizes based OF
the United States standard barrel 40;
quarts) with it's subdivisions, tht
United States cranberry barrel {St
1854 quarts) with its subdivisions, tht
weight bushel. the heaped bushel, anC
the volume bushel. These differen
a standards are used because of compel
ing packages.
Series of Crates.
The result may be seen by a glance
ut the following table:
Three Series of Crates Which Cannot B
Readily Distinguished From Each Other.
Crates based on U. S. apple barrel:
1-barrel crate. quarts 105
R-barrei crate. do 521
1-3 barrel crate. do 30
Crates based on u S. cranberry barrel:
1-barrel crate ..............quarts Sc 45-6
1h-barrel crate .............. do 43 LID
1-3 barrel crate. do Is 29-3
Crates based on standard bushel:
3-bushel crate. te.....................q quarts
11h-bushel crate. do
1-bushel crate. do
: A standard unit of measure shOult
, be permanent, definite, and of tiXe,
, and uniform value. The heaped bushel
, which is in common use, is far fror
| being fixed, and in many instance
the heap has practically disappeared
say specialists of the bureau of MAJ
llets A proper heap has never bee
defined by congress, and in thos
states where an attempt has been mad
TO describe the manner in which tn
measure should be heaped the phra
seology generally is vague and indef
} mite. The heap has been referred t
as a cone, the base being the top O
: the measure, and the height depend
ing upon the nature Of the articl
when piled "as high as may be will
out special effort or design" Sue
? vegetables as sweet potatoes unde
g this definition might be piled so hig
+, that the heap would be as large a
, the measure itself.
In view of the difficulties which ar