BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 327 



Further investigations of the precooling problems connected with 

 California table grapes are necessary, and arrangements are being 

 made for a series of experiments during the coming shipping season 

 which will give a direct comparison of grapes precooled before load- 

 ing in the cars and after loading. By these investigations it is 

 hoped to determine whether the unequal cooling after the fruit is 

 loaded in the cars is in any way responsible for the unsatisfactory 

 results. 



FLORroA CITRUS-FRUIT HANDLING AND SHIPPING. — The investigations 

 of citrus-fruit handling and shipping in Florida were continued 

 during the season of 1910-11 on a broader and more comprehensive 

 scale than has been possible in previous years. The lines of work 

 included: (1) A comparison of fruit picked and handled carefully 

 with ordinary picking and handling, and a comprehensive study of 

 the effect of washing; (2) shipping experiments with carefully picked 

 and packed fruit and fruit picked and packed in the ordinary com- 

 mercial way, part of each lot being packed and shipped as soon as 

 practicable after picking and part being delayed several days before 

 packing and shipping; (3) inspections of oranges in the fields and 

 packing houses for the determination of mechanically injured fruit 

 and fruit with long stems, with demonstrations of the effect of such 

 injuries on the keeping qualities of the fruit; (4) a determination 

 of the percentages of " stem-end " decay in oranges shipped to Wash- 

 ington and the study of the occurrence of the stem-end rot under 

 different conditions, including shipping experiments with fruit from 

 sprayed and nonsprayed sections of experimental groves. 



The washing experiments which Avere carried on in 32 packing 

 houses, using 13 different types of washing machines, showed that 

 an appreciable increase in the decay was due to the washing treat- 

 ment. The increase in the decay was greater in fruit w^hich had 

 received ordinary commercial handling than in the same type of 

 fruit carefully picked and handled. The results indicate that where 

 washing is carried on, a chance for injury followed by decay occurs, 

 but that where this method of cleaning is necessary to place the 

 fruit in presentable condition the decay due to the necessary extra 

 handling may be held at a minimum by care in handling the fruit in 

 picking and grading and in manipulating the washing machines. 



Shipping experiments, including 79 experimental series shipped 

 from various points in Florida to Washington, D. C, showed 0.6 

 per cent of decay in all carefully picked and packed fruit, while the 

 fruit from the same groves given ordinary commercial picking and 

 packing developed 7 per cent decay from blue mold. The effect of 

 careful handling continued through a three weelvs' market-holding 

 test, the carefully handled fruit after this length of time showing 

 less than 2 per cent of decay, while the commercially picked and 

 packed showed more than 14 per cent. 



Results of the stem-end rot investigation showed no apparent 

 relation between handling and the occurrence of this disease in 

 transit or on the market. Spraying experiments and the use of 

 different disinfectants in the water used in washing the fruit yielded 

 indeterminate results. 



The inspections to determine the amount of injury being done in 

 picking and handling covered all of the citrus districts of Florida, 



