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 180 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. 
