xii PREFACE 



the growing of Bermuda onions in Texas, a business that is now assuming 

 large ijroportions. Extreme southern Florida is developing with remarkable 

 rapidity; the orange region is moving farther south; the grape-fruit interest 

 is enlarging; winter trucking is becoming still more important. A few j'ears 

 ago, there was an era of new development in the interior West and on the 

 Central Pacific coast; later came the development of the Atlantic seaboard 

 region; now the farther South (southern and eastern Texas, Louisiana, the 

 Oulf coast) is undergoing great exploitation. With this development in the 

 Gulf region, there has continued a steady filling up and maturing of the 

 great horticultural Northwest (Oregon, Washington and contiguous regions). 

 The governmental control of irrigation work will no doubt still further 

 accelerate the remarkable development in the arid -region states. The great 

 Canadian Northwest is developing with remarkable rapidity, and much of this 

 area, in British Columbia, is already coming to be known for its fruits. 

 Fruit-growing can be extended 300 or 400 miles north of Vancouver. There 

 is no part of the continent which, so far as my knowledge goes, is falling away 

 in its general horticultural activities. 



Coordinate with the development of great horticultural regions has come an 

 •enlarged and quickened knowledge of the principles underlying the handling 

 and transporting of fruits, flowers and vegetables. The relation of cold stor- 

 age to the handling of fruits has taken on new significance. Green or unripe 

 fruit is undesirable for storing. It does not mature, remains undeveloped in 

 quality, and is liable to "scald." It is now found that if ripe fruit is put 

 ■directly into proper cold storage, having been very carefully handled, it will 

 keep a very long time. Examination of the California methods of picking and 

 handling citrous fruits has developed the fact that carelessness in clipping 

 stems, in handling the individual fruits, and delay in putting the fruit into 

 storage, result in a relatively short life and a high percentage of decay. It is 

 natural to extend these findings to other regions and other fruits. In the East, 

 «ven the shippers of apples are beginning to appreciate in a new way the value 

 of carefulness in growing and handling the fruit and the importance of resort- 

 ing earlier to cold storage. The fact that low temperature can be utilized for 

 the keeping of fully ripe fruit was demonstrated at the Louisiana Purchase 

 Exposition, St. Louis. Such fall apples (in the mid- continental region) as 

 Grimes and eJonathan, gathered when ripe, iu southern Missouri, were kept in 

 ■excellent condition for one year from the date of picking. Firmer varieties, 

 as Gano and Ben Davis, were exhibited after having been kept for one, two, 

 thi'ee and four years, and even the four -year fruits were thoroughly edible. 



