20 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 168. 



1. Three lots, each consisting of twelve 1-quart cans of Late Howe 

 berries, none of which showed any decay when they were put in the cans, 

 immediately after they had been run through a Hayden separator, on 

 the 27th of October. The first lot was taken carefully by hand from 

 among the berries in the separator barrels, the second lot in the same way 

 from among those in the first separator box (the "good " box), and the third 

 lot from those in the "second" box. When this fruit was taken out of 

 storage on January 4, 2L2S per cent, of the berries in the first lot, 26.39 

 per cent, of those in the second lot, and 34.5 per cent, of those in the third 

 lot were found to be partly or wholly rotten, the berries from the first 

 separator box thus showing an increase of 24 per cent, and those from the 

 second box an increase of about 62 per cent, in their tendency to rot as 

 compared with that of the berries taken from the separator barrels. 

 Unfortunately, no record was kept as to the part of the barrels (top, 

 middle or bottom) from which the first lot of berries was taken. 



2. This series was conducted as a check on the previous one, and was 

 carried out in the same way in every respect, the berries being run through 

 the separator and put in the cans on the 28th of October and being taken 

 out of storage on the 5th of January. In this series 17.06 per cent, of the 

 berries in the first lot were found to be entirely or partly rotten, as com- 

 pared with 26.23 per cent, in the second lot and 34.27 per cent, in the 

 third. The berries from the first separator box thus showed an increase 

 of about 54 per cent, and those from the second box an increase of about 

 100 per cent, in their tendency to rot, as compared with those from the 

 separator barrels. In the opinion of the writer the berries of the first lot, 

 in this case, were taken from the top fruit of the separator barrels, though 

 no record in regard to this was kept, 



3. Two lots of Early Black fruit were stored in 1-quart cans on the 

 18th of January, none of the berries showing any rot at the time. The 

 twelve cans of berries in the first lot were not nm through a separator, 

 but were taken carefully by hand from four boxes' of uncleaned fruit, 

 three cans being taken from the middle portion of each box, one from the 

 top, one from the center and one from the bottom. The second lot, con- 

 sisting of twenty cans of berries from the same four boxes from which 

 those of the first lot were taken, was taken from separator barrels filled 

 one-third fuU when this fruit was run through a Hayden machine. When 

 these berries were examined one month later (February 18), an average 

 of 17.14 per cent, of those in the first lot was found to be wholly or partly 

 rotten, as compared with an average of 37.14 per cent, in the second lot, 

 the tendency to rot, among the berries run through the separator, thus 

 appearing to be about 117 per cent, greater than that of those taken 

 directly from the uncleaned fruit. It is doubtful, however, if this figure 

 fully represents the injury done in separating in this case, for the keeping 

 quality of the berries in the first lot was probably poorer at the start 

 than the average of that of the fruit in the four boxes from which the 

 berries of both lots came, as clearly appears from the results of the third 

 series of storage experiments discussed in this report (shown in Table 5). 



