November, 1916. 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



263 



The Expeditious Handling of Basket Fruit 



Edwin Smith, B.S.A., In Charge of Fruit Cold Storage and Transportation Investigation, Grim') y, Ont. 



WHEN the Dominion Precooling 

 and Experimental Warehouse 

 at Grimsby, Ont., was put in 

 operation in 1914 the problem arose of 

 handling several thousand baskets from 

 the receiving platform to the precool- 

 ing rooms, and from the rooms to the 

 «ars in the space of a few hours' time. 

 Up to this time baskets had been 

 handled by hand from fruit drays to 

 express platform and again by hand 

 from platform to cars. While this 

 method would be out of the question 

 on account of labor required, it would 

 also be inconvenieTit since in precool- 

 ing it is necessarj' to have the fruit 

 packages raised up from the floor 

 while cooling and would not be ae- 

 ceptaiMe on account of the excessive 

 handling given the fruit. 



Four Swivel-wheel Trucks. 



By using several types of four- 

 wheeled slatted-platfoi-m trucks their 

 merits were coniTjined in a composite 

 which pipoduced the platform truck 

 with four swivel castors shown in the 

 accompanying illustrations. To ac- 

 commodate both 11-qt., 6-qt. baskets 

 and various other fruit packages ef- 

 ficiently, and still . retain a size con- 

 venient for passing through corridors 

 and doors, a length of five feet six 

 inches and a width of three feet two 

 inches was adopted as standard for the 

 platform proper. The end racks ex- 

 tend out about one inch from the end 

 of the platform. They are made from 

 one inch gas pipe and are two feet one 

 and one half inches higher than the 

 surface of the platform. These are 

 securely bracketed to the body of the 

 truck to give suiflcient strength for 

 handling loads. 



The platform is made from eight 

 birch strij)s two and one quarter inches 

 wide by seven-eighths of an inch thick, 

 and two outside sti-ips four and one 

 half inches wide by seven-eighths of an 

 inch thick. These are spaced one and 

 one quarter inches apart, and support- 

 ed on a birch frame made from one and 

 one half indh by five inch marterial, 

 having four cross bed-pdeces of the 

 same material]. These trucks cast 

 fifteen dollars and eighty-five cents 

 each, and may be manufactured 

 locally. 



It is important to have four swivel 

 wheels or castors, as in handling from 

 one to six carloads of fruit a day it is 

 necessary to leave the fruit on the 

 trucks while cooling, filling the pre- 

 cooling rooms entirely with loaded 

 trucks and removing them to the car 

 as soon as cooled. Were it not for the 

 swivels on each corner it would be im- 



possible to fill the rooms without great 

 loss in space. They allow trucks to be 

 placed in corners, shoved sidewise in 

 filling spaces and itunied about sharp 

 curves in narrow alleys. ' Great dif- 

 ficulty would be experienced in turn- 

 ing into the rooms froiu the corridors 

 were it not for the swivels at both 

 ends. Although this difficulty might be 

 overcome in the center-wheeled type 

 of truck, the la)tter is not adapted to 

 close placing in tihe rooms. The castors 



Two men can roll one of these four awlvel- 

 wheel trucks ibearins; a load of from one thou- 

 sand to one thousand six hundred pounds. Note 

 the awivel wheels, which allow of pushing Into 

 corners. 



used are of very heavy construction 

 with steel pins in the swivels. This is 

 important on 'afccount of the heavy 

 loads carried, causing a heavy strain 

 on these pa.rt8 when running over sills, 

 against obstacles, or into refrigerator 

 cars. There has Ijcen the objection 

 raised that this type of truck is more 

 diffieult to handle than one with other 

 kind of w*heels. This is true, but three 

 years' experience at Grims'by has 

 shown that with iplenty of lulbricatioii 

 two men can roll them on the level, 

 and that the advantage of the swivel 

 wheels more than ofiFsets this difficulty. 

 In loading these trucks ordinarily 

 from one hundred and sixty to one 



hundred and eighty six-quart baskets 

 are used for a load, and from eighty- 

 four to one hundred eleven-quart bas- 

 kets, aiggregating a weight from one 

 thousand to one thousand six hundred 

 pounds a truck. On account of differ- 

 ent kinds of fruit and different times 

 of receiving, not all of tlie trucks are 

 full when pl'aced in the rooms, so that 

 it requires from fourteen to seventeen 

 trucks to handle a carload. The rooms 

 at the Gri'mslby plant will liold seven- 

 teeai trucks each, so that no difficulty 

 is experienced in plading a carload of 

 fruit in each room. In cars having 

 mamy simall lots of different fruits it is 

 necessary to place different kinds on a 

 single truck. In this case the card 

 placed on the top of the tinick states 

 amounts and kinds for cheeking and 

 tallying purposes. 



There is alwaj-is some necessity to 

 handle leno or 'heaped baskets of 

 frait. This is accomplished by build- 

 ing racks to accommodate these pack- 

 ages, and by using the Woolverton or 

 Hunter crates. 



The "Lizzie" Truck. 



Owing to the large use of boys in 

 handling baskets during the fruit sea- 

 son a s.'V'istem of trucking was de- 

 iiiaiided that would require less muscle 

 in handling. In working out such a 

 sTOtem it was sought to adopt the 

 \\'estern clamp 'box truck to the use of 

 iDaskets by providing a raised platform 

 or stand, ^vhich would at the same time 

 serve the purpose of raising the fruit 

 packages up off the floor to allow the 

 cold air for precooling to pass up 

 through 'the perforated floor and cir- 

 culate freely through 'the fruit pack- 

 ages. In adapting the truck it was 

 found advisable not to use the clamp, 

 but rather to provide it with an ex- 

 tended tongue, as shown in the illus- 

 ti'ation, which catches underneath the 

 .stands on which are piled the baskets 

 or boxes, lifts the stack clear from the 

 floor for trucking, and releases it aaid 

 slides out when the proper location has 

 been reached. In this manner the 

 stacks of baskets are carried to the 

 precooling rooms for cooling, after 

 which fhey are carried directly into 

 the car. The fruit is unloaded from 

 the stands, whereupon they are taken 

 back to the receiving platform. 



The trucks used in the Grimsby 

 warehouse during the past season 

 proved very useful and satisfactory. 

 The name app'lied to this truck by the 

 warehouse staff was that of "Lizzie 

 truck." For want of a more conveni- 

 ent name this name still stands, and 

 on busy days at the warehouse the de- 



