294 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OP VITICULTURE 



average percentages shown in Table II, the difference between careful and 

 average commercial handling is 3.8 per cent. This means a saving of nearly 

 the equivalent in four crates of fruit in each hundred shipped. In a carload 

 the saving would be about thirty-six crates, or expressing it in terms of car- 

 loads, the difference amounts to a loss of fruit equal to one car-load in 

 twenty-seven and a half. If the figures given in Table III are used in making 

 a similar comparison, the showing is even more impressive, especially as the 

 data were all obtained from lots of fruit handled under actual commercial 

 conditions. The difference in the average percentages of decay found in the 

 carefully and carelessly handled lots of Table III is 7.9 per cent, or a saving 

 of nearly eight crates in each hundred, nearly seventy-eight crates in each 

 car-load, or a loss of one car-load in twelve and a half. The savings by 

 avoiding these losses can be computed in terms of money value, but a much 

 larger return is obtained in the value of a good reputation for soundness 

 which lots arriving consistently with only slight decay and holding in sound 

 condition after arrival soon attain with the buyers. The value of such a 

 reputation cannot be determined in actual money value. It is easy to see, 

 however, that it means a premium either in increased demand or a price in 

 excess of ordinary market quotations. Instead of doubting the profitable- 

 ness or wisdom of handling with sufficient care to insure arrival in sound 

 condition, one may wonder whether in the long run it will pay to handle in 

 any other way. 



Influence of Handling Methods on the Occurrence of Decay in Different Parts 

 of the Refrigerator Car. 



The data obtained from the experimental shipments may be analyzed from 

 the standpoint of the relationship between handling methods and decay found 

 in different parts of the car. As is well known, fruit which is shipped in the 

 upper tiers of the load do not carry as well as that which is placed at or 

 near the floor. The commercial grape crate measures five inches in depth 

 or height, and in order to obtain the minimum car-load weight required by 

 the transportation lines, the crates must be stacked nine high. These layers 

 are designated as tiers, those on the floor are known as the first tier, those 

 on top the ninth or top tier. In the experimental shipments each series had 

 crates on the first and ninth tiers or on the bottom and top tiers of the load. 

 On account of the limitations of traffic requirements and expense, it has 

 not been practicable to construct refrigerator cars for general use along the 

 most efficient lines, or to use the highest type of insulation. In the cars at 

 present in use, there is a considerable heat leakage through the walls of the 

 car and this heat affects the air of the car, the warmer air rising to the top 

 and accumulating in a stratum above the fruit. The difference in tempera- 

 ture between the top and bottom of the car is further aggravated by the 

 sluggish circulation of the air within the car. The refrigeration or cooling 

 of the car and its contents depends upon the natural circulation of the air 

 within the car due to the difference in temperature of the air currents in the 

 ice bunkers and in the body of the car. The refrigerator cars now in use in 

 the United States are equipped with end ice bunkers of a combined capacity 

 of five tons of ice. When the bunkers are filled with ice, the cold air within 

 the bunkers flows downward, creating a current through the ice. This cold 



