Rensselaer Republican, Volume 28, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 September 1895 — FRUIT PACKAGES. [ARTICLE]

FRUIT PACKAGES.

Something: of an Industry of Great Importance to Michigan. . With a fruit crop aggregating millions of bushels annually of berries, currants. peaches,- plums, apples, pears and grapes, the manufacture of baskets, boxes ami crates of all kinds is an important industry in Michigan. There are large fruit-package factories at St. Joseph, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Holland, Belding, Spring Lake and other points along the western part of the State where most of the fruit grows and where the raw material out of which the packages are manufactured is abundant. In midsummer when peaches and apples are coming In and when grapes are nearly ready for the and with full forces, and the packages are turned out by the carload. Black ash veneer is the favorite material for making baskets and boxes for fruit., It is a clean wood, tough, and does not leave a taste or odor to spoil the delicate flavor of the fruit packed in it. ' Elof molds~~quTckTy~ dnd“T>assw6dd has an offensive odor. Maple is the cleanest and sweetest wood there is, but it is expensive and brittle and packages made of it break and splinter easily. • In manufacturing veneers the basis Tor all the modern fruit packages, a simple, thoqgli Interesting process is followed. The log is sawed into bolts of a proper length, usually about threefeet, and these are boiled thoroughly in huge vats kept hot by steain pipes. The bolts are brought' steaming from the vats to the veneer cutter, which resembles a heavy lathe. As the bolt revolves in the lathe a wide knife, operated automatically, slices off the thin veneer i» a continuous roll. The veneer is cut a sixteenth of an inch thick for the average fruit package, but for fine work it is often thinner. Veneers can be cut to tiie thinness of a sheet of paper; and from that up to a quarter of ,an inch in thickness.

From the cutter the veneers, still hot and moist, are shifted to the saws, where they are cut into strips of the desired length and width. For bushel baskets -the' veneers are cut into strips about two inches widely.three feet long. For other packages different shapes are used. Iu making bushel baskets the strips of veneer are placed crosswise in a stationary hoop, with spaces set for • each-strip. Then a machine which operates oil the same general principle as an office punch for sealing a file of papers with an eyelet, descends and the strips of veneer are riveted with an iron l *eye.” f « The disk of veneer strips is then passed to another machine which gives it the basket form. This machine is in two parts, the lower of steel and the exact shape of the inside of a basket. On the top of this form is a place into which the iron eye fits. The upper part descends and the still pliable veneer is quickly bent into the basket shape and held fast until the operative can clinch the matter with wire nails. The operative takesh lioop and'slip's it flown into place for the top of the basket and nails it fast. Then he takes.a long, strip of veneer and beginning at one end nails tt to the bent veneer for the center hoop and in doing so performs a veritable war dance, in which hands, feet and mouth all take a part. The operatives carry the nails in their months, and often so full are those convenient receptacles that talking is out of the question. Like lightning the nails drop from mouth to nimble fingers and with one blow of the hammer each is driven into place, and as it comes in contact with the metal form it bends close to the inner side of the basket. When the hoops are in place the basket passes to a boy, who puts on the bottom hoop to give it a firm foundation when it stands on the ground.

The handles are bent to the desired form by machinery and dried, and a pile is placed by the last machine. The baskets are taken one at a time and the handles placed in position and then the machine sews them on with heavy wire. Drying the basket is the final operation, and it is quickly done. It takes but a few minutes for skillful operatives and quick-working machines to convert the raw timber into a finished basket—it is done while you wait. The peach and other baskets and also the berry boxes are made on substantially the same lines as the bushel baskets, with varying shapes of veneer and modified machines. In making peck baskets of woven.veneers the latter are quickly braided into the desired form Instead of being crossed, as in the bushel baskets, and then they pass to the machine to be pressed into simps and to have the hoops nailed on and the handles attached.

In making berry boxes the veneers rre cut to the desired dimensions, two pieces are crossed and placed upon a machine which marks the folds with a knife which cuts part way Into the wood and then folds them; the side piece, already marked, Is quickly wrapped around the form and tacked on. The hollow bottom to the berry box was the invention of a man named Halleck, and it is related that he did not realize a cent from au Idea which has been of immense value to fruit growers as well as the package manufacturers. The patent which he took out on his Idea has long since expired, and all the manufacturers ,now use it free. The hollow bottom Is not, os some suppose, to diminish the quantity a box will hold, but it Is to save the contents of the lower box from being crushed. In making grape boxes a thick bottom Is provided and the sides of veneer are tacked on, and often a cover of gauze la sewed on with wire before It leaves the factory. The package covers are turned out very rapidly. For bushel baskets the strips of veneer are placed In a form and the hoop around the outer edge Is nailed on. The covers for the other baskets are prepared In the same way, nrith necessary modifications, of course, for the different shapes. ,

_ The fruit packages as turned out by the thousand In Michigan factories are very cheap—cheap enough to give away with the fruit contained in them. The bushel baskets arequoted at 90 cents to $1 a dozen, the grape and peaeh baskets at sls to S2O a thousand and the berry boxes at about $5 a thousand. The packages, except bushel baskets, are rarely used more than once, and from the fruit store or grocery they go to the home of the retail buyer and thence to the furnace or cook stove. They are so cheap that it is hardly worth while to try to save them. The Californians make finer grades of fruit packages, which the Michigan manufacturers are beginning to imitate for i>l nms"flmTpearsT' They are made of whitewood and have tin edges at the top instead of hoops of veneer. They make a much handsomer appearance and are slightly more expensive, but the demand for them is increasing and the manufacturers pre disposed to supply anything that may be asked for. In earlier days each package manufacturer had his own standard of sizes, but of late years the tendency lias beefir more and more 'lb the direction of uniform standards, so that a bushel basket will mean the same thing whether turned out In Grand Rapids or Traverse City. The sizes are bushels nnd fractions of bushels down to a half-peek, for peaches, apples and other fruits of that nature; then for grapes, three, five, ten and fifteen pounds and some even lhrger. In boxes the quart is the standard and a few pints are made. The crates into which the berry boxes are packed are made of thin elm or basswood and often pine is used. They are quickly tacked together, and are not designed for hard or long usage. In shipping baskets and similar packages for fruit they are “birdnested” to occupy as little space as possible and the covers are sent on separately, packed close together and crated. So light are the baskets and they take up so little room that thousands of them are required to make an ordinary carload, yet the demand for them is so great during the fruit season that carload shipments are common. The chief center of the fruit trade In Michigan, waere the hirgest quantity is handled, is Grand Ifapids, and regular depots for packages are maintained there. Allegan, Saugatuek, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Grand Haven, Muskegon, Ilnrt and Traverse City are also important fruit centers. For shipment the veneer that goes to form the berry boxes is cut into the groper lengths nn£ crossed where the wood Is to be bent. Then thousands of boxes in this shape, which is technically styled “knock-down,” are packed into rough crates. “Birdnesting” consists of placing one basket into another until the pile reaches tl\e height of the shipping crate. These Michigan fruit baskets and boxes go far into the West, and every fruit grower has a little work bench under the trees, where .lie “sets up” his “knock-down” berry boxes. He has a “form” made of a 4x4 hardwood block and he bends the creased veneer into the proper shape. Then he drives in the little-nails-ami the-joh is done. His peach baskets are of the peck size and come in the “knock-down.” It requires greater skill to form the basket, but practice makes perfect and customers seldom look further man the fruit. Berry crates the fruit grower makes himself and saves the freight. Lath nnd thin, cheap lumber from the local dealer are the material used.