Box plots are especially effective for comparing batches
Although the box plot of a single data set shows various useful aspects of the distribution of values, it is no more informative than a dot plot, stem and leaf plot or histogram.
However box plots come into their own when two or more batches of data are compared. The most important differences between the batches are usually precisely the aspects that are highlighted by their box plots. Since box plots hide the individual values, these differences become more prominent.
Rice yields
The diagram below shows jittered dot plots of the rice yields (tonnes/hectare) in all major rice-producing countries of the world in 2012.
Use the pop-up menu to display the data as box plots. The major differences between the regions should now be more apparent.
Monthly rainfall in Melilla, Morocco
Rainfall is seasonal in much of the world and its timing and amount are critical for agriculture. The diagram below shows monthly rainfalls in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the north coast of Morocco, from 1960 to 2013 as a jittered dot plot for each month (apart from a few months when rainfall data was not collected).
Again use box plots to highlight the differences between the monthly rainfall distributions.