1734 



ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 



cation of pre-cooling on a commercial 

 scale. It was realized that pre-cooling 

 would not prove a panacea for all of the 

 troubles wliich the different fruit indus- 

 tries were experiencing in transporting 

 fruits to market. The importance of 

 careful handling was consistently urged 

 and all efforts were made to emphasize 

 the necessity of handling the various 

 fruits in a manner to insure their sound 

 carrying qualities. The Bureau work has 

 shown that there is a consistent relation 

 between the type of handling given fruits 

 in preparing them for shipment and their 

 behavior during transit and storage. 

 There is practically no way to avoid re- 

 sponsibility for the occurrence of decay 

 and deterioration due to careless 

 handling on the part of the grower or 

 shipper who prepares the fruit for mar- 

 ket. To use precooling as a means to 

 overcome difficulties which ordinarily can 

 be eliminated by packing the fruit in 

 sound condition, is not only poor policy, 

 but is dangerous to the reputation of the 

 product. Pre-cooling does not absolutely 



prevent decay. The reduction of the tem- 

 perature simply arrests the development 

 of mold and therefore the deterioration 

 due to these agencies occurs after the 

 fruit arrives in market. Such fruit will 

 soon gain a reputation of poor shipping 

 qualities. The correctness of this early 

 conclusion regarding the uses of pre- 

 cooling have been emphasized by later 

 work with table grapes. With this class 

 of fruits, the results of three consecutive 

 seasons show that pre-cooling does not 

 effectively replace careful methods of 

 handling. There was In some Instances 

 a slight reduction in decay due to inju- 

 ries or to otlier causes in cars which con- 

 tained pre-cooled fruit, but the benefits 

 from the pre-cooling process without at- 

 tention to careful handling were not suf- 

 ficient to justify the extra trouble and 

 expense. 



In order to emphasize the results from 

 .the table grape handling and pre-cooling 

 work, the accompanying tables and 

 charts, giving summaries of the three 

 seasons' work on Tokay grapes from Cal- 

 ifornia are presented: 



Table 1. .Vverage Porocntaffes of Decay in Shipments of Tokay Grapes from 



LodJ, California, to ^'ew York City, Seasons of 1908, 1909, 1910. 



On 2 Days After 4 Days After 



Season of 1908 — Arrival. Arrival. Arrival. 



Packed In ground cork 1.6 4.2 6.6 



Carefully handled In crates 4.2 7.8 16.2 



Commerclallv handled In crates 9.6 14.7 33.9 



Season of inOO — 



Packed in redwood sawdust 0.2 0.6 0.7 



Carefully handled In crates 0.9 2.6 ."i.l 



Commercially handled in crates 4.4 7.4 15.8 



Season r,f 1910 — 



Packed In redwood sawdust 2.2 3.6 4.2 



Carefully handled In crates 4.0 5.8 9.3 



Commercially handled In crates 6.5 9.6 1.5.8 



A glance at the figures shows that by 

 careful handling, aside from pre-cooling, 

 the decay in grapes shipped from Califor- 

 nia may be held at a minimum. The fig- 

 ures presented comprise the results ob- 

 tained from the systematic handling, 

 shipping and inspection of a large num- 

 ber of crates of grapes produced under a 

 wide range of conditions. The figures 

 also show the behavior of this fruit after 

 arrival in market. Inspections were 

 made on the day of arrival, after holding 

 two days and after four days; the fruit 



being held under open market conditions 

 and without refrigeration. The consistent 

 effect of careful handling after the fruit 

 arrives in market is strikingly shown. 

 The importance of having such perishable 

 fruit hold up after it arrives in market 

 need hardly be emphasized. Grapes which 

 arrive with as low a percentage of decay 

 as is shown in the figures for the care- 

 fully handled lots on arrival in New 

 York may be reshipped to neighboring 

 cities with perfect safety; whereas, the 

 commercially handled lots deteriorate so 



