290 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VITICULTURE 



had been found to exist between the character of the handling given 

 these fruits in preparing them for shipment and their behavior while in 

 transit, in market or in storage. It was found that the decay occurring in 

 fruits was very largely due to molds of the type of "blue mold," which have 

 not the power of penetrating the sound, healthy skin of a fruit. By far the 

 greater part of the decay was found to be due to common blue mold (Peni- 

 cillium), and very careful study and experiment showed that this fungus is 

 dependent upon a bruise, abrasion, break or weakness of some kind in the 

 skin of the fruit to gain entrance into and develop within the tissues. In the 

 citrus industry of California, careful attention to the handling of the fruit, 

 and the management of the picking and packing operations in such a way 

 that injury was avoided resulted in the practical elimination of the decay 

 loss. 



While it was realized from the start that the character of table grapes 

 is very different from that of citrus and other fruits, requiring different treat- 

 ment, there was sufficient evidence to indicate that the occurrence of decay in 

 grapes was also largely dependent upon the presence of injuries in the grape 

 berries, the methods of handling them and preparing them for shipment, as 

 well as, possibly, upon the type of package used. There was no reason to 

 believe that grapes were an exception to the rule of relationship between 

 handling and carrying quality. 



A careful and systematic investigation of all phases of grape handling 

 and shipping was made at Lodi, California, where the Flame Tokay forms 

 the bulk of the shipments. The work was continued through several seasons 

 in order to overcome the results of seasonal variation. The method of carry- 

 ing out the work consisted in making a careful comparison of grapes care- 

 fully picked and packed by the Department workers with the same fruit 

 picked, packed and handled by the ordinary workmen. Both these lots of 

 grapes were packed in the ordinary open crate, containing four five-pound 

 or two ten-pound splint baskets without a filler of any kind. There were 

 also included in the experimental shipments lots of carefully handled grapes 

 packed in tight boxes with a filler in order to determine whether the use of 

 a filler is necessary to overcome decay, or whether care in handling is suffi- 

 cient to eliminate the occurrence of the mold. The effect of holding the fruit 

 two or three days before shipping was also studied, these shipments being 

 designated as "delayed shipments." The determination of the effect of this 

 treatment was necessary because of the widespread practice of holding the 

 grapes for a day or two in order to allow them to wilt, under the supposition 

 that this greatly facilitates packing. A number of these experimental series 

 of crates and packages of grapes packed with a filler of ground cork or red- 

 wood sawdust were prepared at different vineyards, located in representative 

 sections of the district. The fruit picked and packed by the ordinary work- 

 men was designated as "commercially handled," and that prepared by the 

 Department workers as "carefully handled." The packages were all loaded 

 into cars being shipped to New York, each car having crates and boxes on 

 the top and bottom tiers of the load. Upon arrival at New York, the experi- 

 mental lots were received by a representative of the Department and care- 

 fully inspected by him. The inspection consisted in cutting apart the 

 bunches and carefully segregating the decayed and injuried berries and those 

 which had dropped from the stems, the last being designated as "shelled 



