[Zeke]

The top swings over the bottom and is not only parallel but adjustable in height. My guess is that once a crate is full the crate top is placed on the crate and the machine applies downward pressure. I had family in farming but they're all dead now so I can't ask. And I don't remember exactly how a crate was secured but I do think I remember that they were reused often times with a new grower's label since they didn't necessarily make it back to the original grower.

They were in fact uniform so that stacking facilitated transportation. They were made in a rectangular shape, 12 x 12 x 27 inches, with a slatted lid. So a system to secure the top was necessary but it had to be reusable, therefore not nailed or otherwise any fastening system that tended to destroy the crate. So, I think it was twisted wire and the machine somehow aided in that process.

BTW, the pic above of the crate packers looks correct to me. Sometimes the produce came down wide conveyor belts and was picked. My grandmother had such a system for sacking potatoes. Now potatoes were gunny sacked in 100# sacks (actually 104 pounds wet as they had just come out of the washer) and hand trucked into a cooled rail car 5 high. Took some real men to handle that job.

Now why the old tops are never with the antique crates is a question I can't answer. And I may be all wet myself in answering the identification of the machine