24 



The half-bushel, it may be seen, had cooled to a sufficiently low tem- 

 perature, 40 degrees, in 9^ hours ; the Georgia crate, with open sides and 

 open packing, cooled in the same time within 30 degrees of that tem- 

 perature. By the next morning at eight o'clock the half-bushel had cooled 

 to 35 degrees, the Georg^ia crate to 35 degrees, the bushel to 39 degrees, 

 and the barrel to 47 degrees. Two days after the commencement of the 

 observations the barrel was still at a temperature of 38 degrees, 6 degrees 

 above that of the room. 



The application of these facts is obvious : Winter apples and winter 

 pears may, so far as temperature and ripening are concerned, be packed 

 in barrels. For winter pears, no package smaller than the bushel box 

 need be used. Between the half-bushel and the bushel, there was in the 

 above test a difference of 12 hours in cooling from a temperature of 64 

 degrees to 40 degrees ; but this difference is insignificant with slowly rip- 

 ening fruit. 



For summer and early fall apples the barrel is too large a package, and 

 much of this fruit shipped in barrels turns out badly by reason of the slow- 

 ness of cooling. Where decay occurs it is usually at the centre of the 

 package, because this is the last to cool. The bushel box, cooling to the 

 centre in half the time that the barrel reouires. is for "ihis reason prefer- 

 able to the barrel for early apples. 



For early and quickjy ripening pears, the bushel box is too large a 

 packag'e for best results in long shipments, unless it be in the form of the 

 Georgia carrier with open sides, when it resolves itself virtually into a 

 number of small packages whh spaces between. The writer chanced to 

 call upon a retail dealer at Winnipeg and found him unpacking some 

 Ontario pears, Bartletts, from bushel boxes. There was a marked differ- 

 ence between the pears next to the package and those at the centre. 

 Those at the outside were still green and firm, while those at the centre 

 were quite ripe, and many of them soft and pulpy. The use of the half- 

 bushel box in this instance instead of the bushel, would have hastened the 

 cooling of the centre of the package by 12 hours, and would likely have 

 preserved the fruit at the centre. 



All results of storage and shipping experiments concur in pointing out 

 the necessity for quick cooling of tender fruits. Such fruits should be 

 packed in shallow :;ases and placed in a cold store as soon as possible 

 after picking. 



