292 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VITICULTURE 



The lowest percentages of decay were found in the lots packed with a 

 filler, those with the sawdust filler arriving with less decay and holding in 

 much better condition than those packed in ground cork. This result is con- 

 sistent with experiences in the use of this filler as compared with ground 

 cork in a comprehensive study of the storage of grapes.* 



A comparison of the carefully handled and the commercially handled 

 lots packed in crates shows that the former arrived with less than half 

 the percentage of decay, or three per cent for the carefully handled as com- 

 pared with 6.8 per cent for the commercially handled. On the third day 

 after arrival, the carefuly handled lots had developed 5.4 per cent, about the 

 limit for marketable condition at a fair price. On the fifth day after arrival, 

 the carefully handled fruit had reached the limit 10.2 per cent while the 

 commercially handled had passed far beyond the limits of commercial sale. 

 These figures, while very impressive, do not really tell the whole story. 

 Included in the averages, of the commercially handled are the extremes of 

 ordinary handling. Many of these reached as high as fifteen and some 

 showed twenty per cent decay on arrival, while there were also a few com- 

 mercial lots which arrived with as low or even lower percentages of decay 

 than developed in the special lots handled by the department investigators. 



The Value of Careful Handling* 



Two questions naturally arise: What constitutes careful handling and 

 will it pay to go to extra trouble and expense in preparing the fruit for ship- 

 ment? In carrying out the investigations, nothing was attempted in the 

 special careful handling which would not be practicable in ordinary com- 

 mercial practice. Careful handling consisted in picking the bunches with 

 some care to avoid bruising or crushing and all the lifting or moving of the 

 bunches was done by means of the main stems. The bunches were carefully 

 laid, not dropped, into the field boxes, which were filled only one layer deep. 

 In moving the field trays or boxes, care was used to set them down gently 

 instead of roughly dropping or otherwise jolting them. All hauling was 

 done on wagons with springs. Special care was used in "culling" to remove 

 every injured or otherwise unsound berry and not to injure others, always 

 as far as possible handling the bunches by holding the main stems. The 

 culling carefully done, the bunches were carefully but firmly placed in the 

 baskets, always avoiding crushing or bruising. About ninety per cent of the 

 injuries to grapes occur at the pedicels of the berries; in some varieties a 

 slight bending aside of the berry being all that is necessary to cause a crack 

 or break to occur beneath or at the side of the pedicel. A very slight injury 

 is sufficient to allow the decay fungus to gain entrance into the fruit. 



The most impressive answer to the question relating to the practicability 

 of careful handling under commercial conditions is the fact that many grow- 

 ers are handling as carefully as the Department investigators and their fruit 

 arrives in the market in sound condition. 



In order to show the relationship existing between careful handling and 

 soundness under actual commercial conditions, the data shown in Table III 

 are presented. 



* The results of the grape storage investigations were published a year 

 ago in Bulletin 35 of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. 



