296 INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF VITICULTURE 



fruit is much greater under ordinary commercial handling than in the care- 

 fully handled lots. The latter arrived in excellent condition on the top tier 

 (0.6 per cent) as well as on the bottom (1.4 per cent). Under ordinary 

 commercial handling only the packages loaded on the bottom tiers arrived 

 with a decay percentage (3.G per cent) below the commercial limit. The top- 

 tier fruit with 8.4 per cent decay was beyond the five per cent limit, and was 

 fit for only immediate sale and consumption. Looking at the figures pre- 

 sented from another standpoint it will be seen that the carefully handled 

 fruit carried better and held in market after arrival in much better condition 

 when loaded on the top tier than the commercially handled lots loaded in 

 the more favorable position at the floor of the car. 



TABLE V. Average percentages of decay in Tokay grapes under careful and 

 careless commercial handling loaded on the top and bottom tiers of re- 

 frigerator cars and shipped to New York. 



Careful Commercial Careless Commercial 



Handling Handling 



Bottom Top Bottom Top 



Tier Tier Tier Tier 



% Decay % Decay % Decay % Decay 



On arrival at New York 1.3 1.8 6.7 12.1 



Three days after arrival 2.2 4.8 10.5 17.3 



Five days after arrival 4.3 7.1 14.3 28.9 



Seven days after arrival 7.3 9.3 25.2 35.2 



Table V is compiled from the records obtained entirely from shipments 

 of fruit given ordinary commercial handling. The lots were divided into two 

 classes, those from packers handling carefully and those packed by more or 

 less careless growers and packers. The same number of shipments from the 

 same number of growers are included in each class. A glance at the figures 

 in the table is sufficient to indicate the consistency of the results with those 

 presented in Table IV. There is a very wide difference between carelessly 

 handled fruit loaded at the top and bottom tiers of the car, while the differ- 

 ence is much less or only slight with carefully handled lots. 



These figures show the important influence the type of handling given 

 the grapes in preparing them for shipment has upon their carrying and 

 market-holding qualities. Moreover, the effect of the higher temperature at 

 the top of the car is more unfavorable in fruit under conditions of careless 

 handling than is the case with carefully handled fruit. In other words the 

 difference between the top and bottom tiers in the cars becomes of less im- 

 portance when the fruit is packed without injury. From the standpoint of 

 the commercial shipper, these results are of the greatest importance. If he 

 could be sure that all of the grapes offered him for shipment were packed 

 without appreciable injury, he need not question whether they were placed 

 on the bottom or top tiers of the load. 



