114 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 192. 



picking crates under different conditions of ventilation. Lot 1 was placed 

 in a tightly closed trunk; lot 2 was unenclosed in the basement of the 

 screenhouse; and lot 3 was left outdoors every clear, cold night, and 

 kept in the basement the rest of the time. The last lot was much wetted 

 by dews, this probably largely offsetting the benefits of the lower tempera- 

 tures obtained by the night exposure. 



Considerably more spoilage took place among the fruit in the trunk 

 than in the other lots, confirming the findings concerning ventilation 

 given in previous reports. The percentages of berries showing decay at 

 the end of the experiment — November 13 — follow: — 



Lot 1 35.85 



Lot 2 . . 27.88 



Lot 3, 28.58 



4. Losses from Decay and from Size Shrinkage of Sound Berries in Closed 

 and in Open Containers compared. 



Table 6 shows the results in this connection with the Howes fruit of 

 grading tests 3 and 4 of group 6. There was almost no shrinkage in the 

 size of the sound berries in the closed crates, while those in the open ones 

 shrunk on an average over 4 per cent. This difference in shrinkage, 

 being due to the difference in ventilation, is probably a fair measure of 

 it. If so, the Beaton crate has practically no ventilation when packed 

 for shipment. 



The table shows that the average increase in loss due to decay in the 

 closed crates was less than half the average increase in loss from size 

 shrinkage in the open ones. This is surprising and needs further investi- 

 gation. The fact that the berries of test 3 were picked in a different place 

 from those in test 4 makes the result especially questionable, for those of 

 test 4 may have been inferior keepers anyway. 



An experienced observer ^ has estimated that Early Black berries held 

 in common storage at a bog for late trade shrink as much as 10 per cent 

 aside from any deca3^ The difference between the averages of the cup- 

 counts taken at the beginning and at the end of the storage in grading 

 test 1 (Table 9) shows a size shrinkage of about 10 per cent for this variety 

 between October 10 and January 14. This fruit was picked September 

 20, and its total size shrinkage must have been much more than 10 per 

 cent, for cranberries lose weight in ordinary storage considerably more 

 than twice as fast in early fall as in winter. ^ 



The loss from size shrinkage under conditions of free ventilation is 

 evidently so large, especially in the early fall, that the advisability of 

 making special provisions for ventilating, except where this may aid in 

 maintaining low temperatures, is much reduced. In the writer's opinion, 

 shipping in crates instead of in barrels is, except with poorly colored 

 fruit, desirable more because it reduces mass bruising than because it 

 allows freer ventilation. 



1 Griffith, H. S.: In Ann. Rept. New Eng. Cranberry SaleslCo., 1913, p. 20. 



2 Bui. No. 168, Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta.. 1916, p. 16. 



