22 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 168. 



1. Some Late Howe berries were heated in picking boxes in a warm 

 room and packed in a barrel as if for shipment. A dough thermometer 

 was inserted in a hole bored in the center of each head of the barrel, its 

 bulb reaching in 9 inches among the berries; and another was placed in 

 a hole in the bilge, its bulb reaching to the very center of the fruit. The 

 temperature of the barreled berries at 5.15 p.m., February 15, was shown 

 by these thermometers to range from 65 to 67 degrees Fahr. The barrel, 

 with the thermometers in place, was then put at once in the basement of 

 the station screen-house, the temperature of the basement at the time, 

 as shown by a Green minimum thermometer placed near the barrel, being 

 34 degrees Fahr. During the following twenty-four hours, the basement 

 temperature ranged between 31 and 34 degrees. The thermometers in 

 the barrel, at 5.15 p.m., February 16, showed an average temperature of 

 51 degrees among the berries, their temperature having fallen about 

 15 degrees in the twenty-four hours. Between 5.15 p.m., February 16, 

 and 5.15 p.m., February 17, the basement temperature ranged between 

 33 and 35| degrees, and at the latter time the temperature of the barreled 

 berries was found to average 42 degrees, it having dropped 9 degrees 

 during the second period of twenty-four hours. Between 5.15 p.m., Feb- 

 ruary 17, and 11.15 a.m., February 18, the basement temperature ranged 

 from 32 to 36 degrees, and at the latter time the average temperature of 

 the barreled berries was 38| degrees, it having dropped only 3j degrees in 

 the last eighteen hours (or at the rate of 4^ degrees in twenty-four hours). 

 At 5.15 P.M., February 18, the temperature of both the basement and the 

 berries was 38 degrees. As will be seen, it took practically three days for 

 the temperature of this barrel of berries to come down to that of the 

 basement, there being an initial difference of about 32 degrees between 

 them. Presumably, a considerably longer period would have been required 

 to equalize these temperatures if that of the basement had not risen toward 

 the end of the test. 



When the length of time required to bring the temperature of this single 

 barrel down to that of the basement is considered, it seems that the 

 temperature changes of carload lots of barreled berries must be very slow. 



2. A shipping crate of Late Howe cranberries was handled in the same 

 way as the barrel of fruit in the previous test, except that a glass chem- 

 ical thermometer, instead of a dough thermometer, was inserted into each 

 compartment of the covered crate in such a way as to take the temperature 

 of the berries at its very center. The temperatures were taken when 

 those of the barrel test were. The average initial temperature of the 

 berries in this crate was about 69 degrees Fahr. and it took it about forty 

 hours to come down to that of the basement. 



Practical Conclusions based on the Results of the Storage Tests. 

 Much of the experience gained in these experiments was of such a 

 nature that it cannot be given in detail in this report, but it is considered 



