REPORT OF CRANBERRY SUBSTATION FOR 1915. 23 



freely, in connection with the results of the tests that have been de- 

 scribed, in formulating the conclusions that follow: — 



1. While ventilation is a very important factor in retarding the develop- 

 ment of rot, it is doubtful if, all things considered, it would pay cranberry 

 growers to go to any considerable expense in making special arrangements 

 to provide for it in connection with the storage of their fruit previous to 

 shipment, except, perhaps, in storage-house construction. As a rule, ber- 

 ries of poor keeping quality are shipped as soon as possible after they are 

 picked, and it is only with such fruit that the maximum benefit to be 

 gained by superior arrangements for ventilation would be reahzed. Some 

 precautions, however, which do not call for much expenditure of either time 

 or money, can apparently be taken with much advantage. Among these, 

 the thorough airing of the storage house on cool, dry days, and the allow- 

 ance of as much space in the storage of the fruit as circumstances permit, 

 may probably be properly mentioned. 



2. Special attention to the keeping down of temperatures appears to 

 promise fully as great advantages, as far as storage previous to shipment 

 is concerned, as can be obtained from special arrangements for ventilation. 



3. Storage house construction, in its relations to temperature and 

 humidity, is urgently calling for careful scientific study. 



4. Methods of preparing the fruit for shipment are not receiving the 

 attention they deserve. The following suggestions in this connection 

 are here advanced for consideration : — 



(a) The injury to the keeping quality of cranberries, caused in the 

 process of their preparation for shipment by the methods at present 

 generally followed, is enormous, and would be endured by hardly any 

 other kind of fruit. Special harm appears to be done by the bouncing of 

 the berries in the separators and by their drop into the barrels in separating 

 and screening. It ought not to be difficult to devise simple means for 

 greatly reducing this barrel injury, and separators of the general type 

 of the White machine promise, in the opinion of the writer, to damage the 

 fruit much less than those which employ the bouncing principle. Un- 

 fortunately, separators that make use of the snapping principle (White 

 machine) are likely to be comparatively expensive, and, at the same time, 

 have a relatively small capacity; these disadvantages, under present 

 marketing conditions, making the use of such machines almost prohibitive, 

 except with large growers. If community packing houses were estabhshed, 

 however, such machines could probably be used extensively with no little 

 advantage. 



(6) No berries that are to be branded should ever be run more than 

 once through a separator employing the boimcing principle. 



(c) At present, cranberries are usually shipped in barrels, and the 

 writer is informed that most dealers prefer to handle this fruit in such 

 containers. If the maintenance of the fruit in good condition is a matter 

 of first importance, however, great disadvantages are obviously connected 

 with the use of the barrel. The pressure of the top fruit on that at the 



