I think the next step is to measure the dimensions of one of these boxes, and see if the volume is in fact 10/9 of the official volume of a bushel. The dimensions of a box would also likely allow us to determine how they’d be stacked on a pallet.
Obviously it’s a holdover from World War 2. A 1 1/9 bu. box exactly held a nine-yard belt of .50 caliber ammunition which was used in fighter planes.
Challenge Accepted.
But seriously, shouldn’t be a problem. Inside or outside dimensions?
ETA; headsmack, both, I’ll just get both.
ETA2: Whatever website I linked to above says 15 5/8” x 11 3/8” x 13 1/8” and ULine says 15 1/2 x 11 5/8 x 13 3/8". Presumably those are outside dimensions, but those are pretty thin boxes.
So, I just checked to see what I have and apparently I had completely forgotten about the fact that the boxes are all different sizes. I only took a cursory glance at them, so maybe the volumes are still the same. Here’s two of them next to each other.
I also found this box with an option for 6/10 bu.
I saw another one marked 2/3 bu, but that was a odd sized case of pears I think.
I don’t see any responses from Metric folk. I suspect they are rolling on the floor laughing. But it would be really funny if they had a box marked 1 1/9 Cubic Meters.
well the one on the left in your first pic is clearly 11/9 Bu. 
:: nods ::
Shit like this is why people go metric. 
I still remember how appalled I was when I learned about the “slug” in first year university…
I think I have the answer.
Although the measurement for the volume of a bushel has changed slightly over time, it is generally understood today that a bushel is equal to 8 imperial gallons, or 36.37 metric liters in volume.
Multiply 36.37 by 1.11 (1 1/9) and you get just a trace over 40 metric liters - an easy, close-enough conversion for the metric folks
If that’s it, I’m calling this a win:
I have doubts about that. If it was important to the “metric folks” that the box was 40 liters, wouldn’t that be printed on the box?
1 1/9 Bu . . . How much is that in acre-feet?
3.174 x 10-5
Who needs metric when we have conversions like that?
But that link is to a Canadian site and it uses imperial gallons. A US bushel is 9.309 US gallons or 35.239 liters.
I should have guessed I’d get an answer.
If you don’t like it, consider my previous answer.
Here’s a metric folk, and the bushel and the fact that it has different definitions in different regions and all that stuff is kinda funny (but rather sad, as an engineer I just shake my head and my brain hurts), but what baffles me the most in this thread is that produce like peppers and fruit are measured and sold in volume units. WTF? They don’t pack evenly in boxes, so why not weigh them instead?
Slightly tangential to the thread, but the other day I was trying to measure the diameter of a hole and I asked my daughter if she had a ruler. She ruffled through her schoolbag and brought me out a cheap, flexible 8"-long plastic ruler with Japanese kawaii type cartoon characters on it. I check both sides, and both sides are inches. I line it up against the hole and my brain suddenly freezes and I start doubting my sanity for a second. I count four lines between each half inch measurement. Wait. That’s supposed to be three isn’t it? The start line, the 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 lines, then the half-inch line. Nope, this was divided into tenths. I lined it up with a normal ruler I found, and all the inch and half-inch lines align, just that the Japanese (or Japanese-branded) one was divided into tenths, and the regular ruler into 8ths.
I had never seen that before.
You’ve gone back to metric without tellin’ US?
They are only shipped by volume units. They are sold by weight or count. Nobody buys 25 cubic inches of pepper.