CARELESS HANDLING CAUSES ROT. 



539 



Shipping Fruit in the Nia;^ara District 



The shipping station of Mr. E. D. Smith, of Winona, is here shown with se itilated cars being loaded. This station is equipped with 

 a cold storage plant and annually handles immense quantities of all kinds of fruit. On the left may be_seen Mr. Smith's new jam factory in 

 course of erection. This building has been completed since the photograph was t.iken. 



The principle that we wish to emphasize 

 by this phase of the discussion is that fruits 

 01 all kinds, whether they are intended for 

 storage in warehouses or, like the perish- 

 able fruits, are shipped to distant markets, 

 need to have their ripening processes 

 checked as soon as they are picked, as the 

 ripening that takes place in the orchard or 

 in transit is at the expense of the keeping 

 quality and value on the market or in the 

 warehouse. 



A phase of the question that should logi- 

 cally precede all others is the care in hand- 

 ling and preparation of the fruit. The 

 most serious rots in northern apples and 

 pears in transit and in storage are often the 

 direct result of bad handling and packing 

 on the part of the fruit grower or dealer, 

 coupled with a delay in storing the fruit, 

 during which time the rots enter the bruised 

 parts and develop. 



The common soft storage rots of apples 

 and pears, which are caused by moulds, do 

 not affect unbruised fruit. They gain en- 

 trance only when the skin has been broken 

 by 'rough picking, or sorting, or by the 

 movement of the fruit in loosely packed 



packages during shipment, and kill the fruit 

 prematurely. On the other hand, an un- 

 bruised fruit lives until it has spent its vital 

 forces through natural chemical and physio- 

 logical changes, when it dies from old age. 



Not in the history of commercial fruit 

 growing has the influence of the careful pre- 

 paration and handling of fruit on its keep- 

 ing quality been emphasized as it was at the 

 horticultural exhibit of the World's Fair at 

 St. Louis. Several of the states kept the 

 tables well supplied with magnificent apples 

 of the previous year's crop throughout the 

 exposition. The principal part of the 

 fruit exhibit to September 15 was made up 

 of fruit of the crop of 1903. There was 

 a wide variation in the keeping quality in 

 the fruit from different states, and, in my 

 judgment, this variation was due more to 

 the preparation of the fruit for storage than 

 to the conditions in the particular section 

 in which the fruit was grown. 



We do not underestimate tht influence of 

 geographic and climatic conditions on the 

 keeping of varieties, and we do believe that 

 the success that was achieved by the vari- 

 ous localities in showing their fruit pro- 



