416 BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN MEMOIRS 



products must be a serious drain on our food supply and must add 

 materially to the cost of living. No adequate estimate can, however, 

 be made of the enormous economic loss represented in such cases. 

 Think of the time, labor, and investment involved in the planting, 

 cultivating, harvesting, and hauling of these products, and of the 

 freight or express, refrigeration and delivery charges paid! This 

 is one of the most expensive forms of economic loss imaginable. 



Causes of Losses 



The important problems which confront investigators, producers, 

 carriers, and consumers, are the causes and means of prevention of 

 these enormous losses. The producers and transportation companies 

 have heretofore been too much inclined to look upon their share of 

 these losses as among the natural hazards of their business. The 

 carriers, however, are now realizing more fully than ever before, 

 the great reduction in their income due to the payment of claims from 

 shippers for loss resulting from decay and spoilage of products in 

 transit. According to the report of the American Association of 

 Refrigeration,* the total amount of claims paid by i8o railroads in 

 1914 for loss of perishable freight was $4,977,383.09; of this amount 

 over one half, or $2,687,393.36 was for fruit and vegetables. This, of 

 course, does not represent all the railroads of the country nor all the 

 losses on the roads represented. 



In order to devise means of reducing or preventing this enormous 

 destruction of food products, it is, of course, first necessary to deter- 

 mine the causes and their relations and importance. The deteriora- 

 tion of fruits and vegetables in transit is due chiefly to the action of 

 parasitic or saprophytic fungi. Natural ripening processes and changes 

 in the cell contents caused by the accumulation of respiration products 

 or smothering, may also render the articles unfit for food. These 

 changes are usually hastened by high temperature and lack of ventila- 

 tion. Each kind of fruit has, of course, its own natural keeping qualities. 

 Some kinds, like strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and figs, soon 

 become spoiled under optimum conditions, while others, like apples, 

 may be kept in good condition for relatively long periods. The 

 structure and composition of the ordinary perishable plant products 

 and their relations to the keeping and carrying qualities of such 

 products are fairly well known and no discussion of them will be 

 attempted here. 



There are many other factors, however, involved in determining 

 the keeping and carrying qualities of fruits and vegetables, such as 



^ Bulletin No. 2. Issued by Commission on Railway and Steamship Refrigera- 

 tion of the American Association of Refrigeration, p. 82, June, 1916. 



