3368 



TRANSPORTATION 



TRANSPORTATION 



in transportation. It is plain, therefore, that the funda- 

 mental factors influencing, to the greatest extent, the 

 behavior of fruits and vegetables in transportation come 

 under the following heads: (1) Cultural; (2) maturity 

 at time of picking; (3) care exercised in all handling 

 operations; (4) promptness of cooling; precooling; (5) 

 temperatures in transportation. 



Cultural history of the crop. 



In so far as cultural practices determine the crop's 

 freedom from disease when harvested and its inherent 

 keeping quality, are cultural operations responsible 

 for condition of these crops in transportation. Of 

 especial importance are the methods of orchard or 

 field sanitation. Field or orchard diseases attacking 

 crowing fruits or vegetables very often cause serious 

 decay in transit. Peaches from orchards or sections 

 affected with brown-rot (Sclerotinia) or Monilia usually 

 show serious development of brown-rot after shipment. 

 In certain humid sections of the Pacific coast, for exam- 

 ple, the prevalence of brown-rot makes long-distance 

 shipment of cherries and fresh prunes an extremely 

 hazardous 'venture. Certain vegetable crops, such as 

 lettuce, celery, and tomatoes, when transported long 

 distances, sometimes develop serious decay in transit 

 through diseases that attack the growing crops in the 

 fields. Decay in transportation, caused by diseases com- 

 monly affecting crops in field or orchards, can be con- 

 trolled only through proper orchard- and field-sanita- 

 tion practises. While the rapidity of the development of 

 such decay in transportation can be controlled, to some 

 extent, by quick prompt cooling and the maintenance 

 of very low temperatures, the only real preventive lies 

 in the control of these diseases in fields or orchards. 



Maturity at time of harvesting. 



The picking-maturity of peaches, muskmelons, and 

 other quick-ripening fruits is governed largely by the 

 distance from market and general experience as regards 

 the carrying quality of such fruits at different stages 

 of maturity under ordinary refrigeration. When they 

 are to be shipped for considerable distances, the usual 



Eractice is to pick and pack them while still so green, 

 ard, and immature as to be unfit for immediate con- 

 sumption. Sometimes they are harvested in such a 

 green state that they do not properly ripen in transit, 

 and while not entirely worthless from a marketing 

 standpoint, their poor eating quality necessarily results 

 in very low prices. Fruits from certain sections have 

 undeservedly gained a reputation for poor quality 

 because the consumers never have had an opportunity 

 to taste any properly matured fruit. There is no 

 questioning the fact that if the quick-ripening fruits 

 entering into long-distance transportation could be 

 harvested at much nearer full maturity, that is, hard- 

 ripe, and transported to the consumer in sound con- 

 dition, both producer and consumer would benefit 

 greatly, the former in increased returns, the latter in 

 securing a more wholesome and palatable fruit. 



The reason for the present condition is largely found 

 in the notion that such fruits must be picked while still 

 very green and hard to carry in sound condition to the 

 market. To some extent this idea is well founded. 

 Greater care, however, in all handling operations, with 

 prompt cooling, will enable growers and shippers suc- 

 cessfully to handle the quick-ripening fruits at more 

 advanced stages of maturity. WTien precooling 

 facilities are available, it has been demonstrated that 

 it is not only possible but practicable to harvest such 

 fruits as peaches and pineapples at advanced stages 

 of maturity as will give the consumer a product pos- 

 sessing its maximum fine quality and wholesomeness. 

 When such facilities are not available, much can be 

 accomplished toward the same end through proper 

 and careful handling, prompt loading and the stowing 

 of the load in the car in such a way as to facilitate cir- 



culation and consequent quick cooling or refrigeration. 

 The practicability of successfully transporting more 

 nearly tree- or plant-ripened fruits, possessing the 

 maximum fine quality of the variety when delivered to 

 the consumer, will depend both on the grower and the 

 carrier. The grower must exercise, first of all, the 

 greatest care in handling and get his fruit under 

 refrigeration quickly. The carriers must provide refrig- 

 eration facilities in which the product can not only be 

 cooled faster but transported at lower temperatures 

 than is ordinarily obtained in the average equipment. 

 What has been said above, relative to the desirability 

 of harvesting certain fruits at much advanced stages 

 of maturity, does not, of course, apply to such fruits 

 as pears, lemons, and fruits or vegetables which should 

 be picked green in order that they may possess their 

 maximum fine quality when finally ripened or cured. 



Care in harvesting and handling. 



The care exercised in harvesting and preparing horti- 

 cultural products for shipment determines, to the 

 greatest degree, its shipping or keeping quality. Exten- 

 sive investigations conducted on a commercial scale by 

 the Bureau of Plant Industry, United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, for a number of years, covering a 

 wide range of fruits and vegetables, have clearly and 

 conclusively demonstrated that decay in transit and 

 after arrival at the market is due very largely to rough 

 methods of handling. The fungous organisms causing 

 decay gain entrance through mechanical abrasions of 

 the skin made in picking, hauling, packing, or other 

 handling operations. Every injury or breakage of the 

 cells of the skin offers lodgment for fungous spores 

 which, given proper moisture and temperature con- 

 ditions, germinate and produce decay. Both high 

 temperatures and moist atmosphere favor rapid 

 development and growth of these organisms. Tempera- 

 tures are usually fairly high during the harvesting 

 season, as is frequently the humidity. During periods 

 of muggy or rainy weather, the conditions are ideal for 

 the germination and development of fungous spores, 

 and almost every injury is certain to result in decay. 

 The fundamental consideration, therefore, in all 

 handling operations is the preservation of the skin in a 

 sound and unbroken condition. 



Nearly all growers and handlers of fruit or vegetables 

 realize that rough handling, resulting in mechanical 

 abrasions of the skin, is more or less responsible for 

 decay occurring in transit. Few, however, have a 

 clear idea of the extent of mechanical injuries made in 

 ordinary commercial handling, nor do they realize 

 fully the importance of the most careful work, or what 

 constitutes proper and careful handling of a perishable 

 product. In a short article it is obviously impossible 

 to go into details as to how injuries are made in hand- 

 ling from field to car. The handling operations in- 

 volved in the harvesting and preparation of the 

 citrous fruit crop for shipment may serve as a very good 

 example. In the harvesting of citrous fruits the 

 mechanical abrasions may result from cuts made by the 

 clippers used in severing the fruits from the tree, from 

 contact with thorns on the trees, from dropping the 

 fruits into the picking-sack or field-box, rough handling 

 in loading, and jarring in hauling oyer rough roads or 

 on springless wagons. Additional injury may result as 

 the fruit goes through the washing-machines, brushes 

 and driers, and over the sizers, and into the bins. Long 

 sharp stems also cause much injury as the fruits roll 

 against one another in the picking-sack, field-box, 

 and the various operations of washing, drying, grading, 

 and sizing. The pickers and packers, where gloves are 

 not worn, may cause much injury through finger-nail 

 cuts. The washing of fruit in dirty water, or slow and 

 incomplete drying, both afford ideal or favorable con- 

 ditions for infection of every injury and the consequent 

 development of decay. The so-called soft fruits require 



