Marketing 187 



high. Express is the most rapid means of transportation, 

 but sometimes the rates are so high as to be almost pro- 

 hibitive. The crates may be handled roughly, since they 

 are loaded and unloaded hurriedly, while the train is wait- 

 ing. No provision is made for spacing them in the car, 

 so as to insure ventilation. Strawberries can be shipped 

 by express without refrigeration when they will reach 

 the market within twenty-four hours. If the weather is 

 cool and dry, express shipments may be on the road forty- 

 eight hours, but the risk is great. In warm weather, 

 small quantities of berries are shipped by express in re- 

 frigerator chests, particularly from Florida and Cali- 

 fornia. It is safer to use refrigerators if the fruit is 

 to be on the road more than twenty-four hours; but 

 strawberries have been shipped successfully in refrig- 

 erator chests from Hood River, Oregon, to Hong Kong. 

 The name of the grower should be stenciled on the upper 

 left hand corner of the cover. The name and address of 

 the consignee should be stenciled plainly on both ends 

 of every crate. The crates should be stout and securely 

 nailed ; the light gift crates frequently break in shipment. 



Ventilator cars. 



These are used for shipping car-lots of berries to points 

 not over forty-eight hours distant; in hot weather, 

 not over twenty-four hours. They have screen-covered 

 vents which, if kept open, give a circulation of air inside 

 the car. If the air circulates freely, the berries carry 

 somewhat better than by express. The cars are filled 

 four to six tiers high, according to the size of the crates. 

 The berries in the top tier carry poorest, because these 

 crates rock most. Even districts that are comparatively 

 close to market, as the Delaware-Maryland peninsula, 



