Page 10 



BETTER FRUIT 



August 



Photo by T. Gaffnon, Wenatchee. Washington 

 Packed for the Lonsview Orchaid Conipanv, Wenatihee, Washington 

 (1) 200 pears; (2) 120 pears; (3) 180 pears; (4) 140 pears; (5) 96 pears 



W_i 



Three boxes of apples, show ing one packed too low, one just right, and one too high 



Handling Fruits for Distant Markets 



[ Office of Information, U. S. Department of Agriculture. ] 



THE importance of careful picking 

 and handling in preventing decay in 

 such fruits as cherries and prunes is 

 brought out in Bulletin 331 of the 

 United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, which contains a report of experi- 

 ments conducted with these fruits in 

 the Willamette Valley, Oregon. Hither- 

 to it has not usually been found profit- 

 able to ship fresh cherries and prunes 

 from this region to distant markets be- 

 cause of the unsatisfactory condition in 

 which the products arrive. These in- 

 vestigations demonstrate that a great 

 part of the decay can be prevented by 



the exercise of proper care, but that 

 unless care is exercised there is little 

 hope of disposing of the fresh cherry 

 and prune crop of this region in dis- 

 tant markets. The facts brought out 

 in the investigation are believed to be 

 applicable also to other sections of the 

 country. The losses which shippers of 

 cherries and prunes experience are due 

 chiefly to brown rot and to other fungi 

 which gain entrance through abrasions 

 in the skin, or other injuries to the 

 fruit. The brown rot must be con- 

 trolled by proper orchard practice. On 

 the other hand, the loss from those 



forms of fungi which do not attack 

 healthy, sound fruit can be minimized 

 by careful handling. 



In order to demonstrate this fact the 

 investigators stored various lots of 

 carefully-handled fruit and of commer- 

 cially-handled fruit for varying periods 

 in a refrigerator car, in which the con- 

 ditions were made as nearly as possible 

 identical with those under which the 

 fruit would travel in actual commercial 

 practice. At the end of five days in the 

 iced car, the carefully-handled fruit 

 showed an average of only 0..5 per cent 

 of decay, while the commercially- 

 handled fruit showed 2.8 per cent of 

 decay, or practically six times the 

 amount. At the end of ten days the 

 carefully-handled fruit had 1.5 per cent 

 of decay, and the commercially-handled 

 lots 12.3 per cent, or eight times as 

 much. Ten days is approximately the 

 time required to ship fruit from the 

 Willamette Valley to Chicago. Similar 

 results were obtained from experi- 

 ments with prunes, although with 

 them the percentage of decay for 

 both commercially-handled and care- 

 fully-handled fruit was smaller than 

 with cherries. It is pointed out, how- 

 ever, that although every effort was 

 made to have the conditions approxi- 

 mate those in actual transportation, it 

 is probable that the fi-uit kept better 

 in the iced car used for these tests than 

 it would in the ordinary refrigerator 

 car in transit. 



Experiments were also conducted 

 both with carefully-handled and com- 

 mercially-handled fruit to determine 

 the value of precooling before placing 

 the fruit in the refrigerator car. These 

 tests show that i^recooling is undoubt- 

 edly of value. On the other hand, it 

 cannot be relied upon to prevent losses 

 due to careless handling. Injured fruit 

 will decay whether it is precooled or 

 not, and for this reason precooling is 

 not recommended unless it is preceded 

 by adequate care in picking and pack- 

 ing. It is also pointed out that any 

 delay between the picking and the 

 shipping of fruit hastens decay. The 

 amount of damage done in this way 

 will vary, of course, with the weather 

 conditions, but under any circum- 

 stances it is considerable. 



In view of these facts it is recom- 

 mended that every precaution should 

 be taken in picking the fruit not to 

 bruise it, and that it should be trans- 

 ferred as few times as possible from 

 one container into another. While it is 

 being lielil in the orchard after i)icking 



The Three Leading 

 Cold Storage 

 Warehouses in 

 the New York 

 District 



THE MANHATTAN REFRIGERATING COMPANY 



Located on N. Y. C. R. R. tracks 



West Washington and Gansevoort Markets, New York City 



UNION TERMINAL COLD STORAGE COMPANY 



Located on Erie Railroad and D. L. & W. R. R. tracks 

 Jersey City, New Jersey 



KINGS COUNTY REFRIGERATING COMPANY 



Wallabout Freight Station, Wallabout Market, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Genera! Offices, 525 West Street, New York City 



WHEN WRITING ADVERTISERS MENTION BETTER FRUIT 



T. A. Adams, President 



