MARKETING AND STORING FRUIT. 127 



to the four corners to fasten it down. Matting shades with- 

 out heating like a tarpaulin. But never ship peaches the 

 same day they are picked. See that your ventilated car 

 is left with both doors open that night to cool ; pack as 

 quickly as possible in the morning, closing the door at 

 once and opening the ventilators at each end. That is just 

 how I treated the many car-loads of ripe sod LeConte pears, 

 went with them to Chicago and saw them opened up in per- 

 fect order at three o'clock the last day of July, the fruit as 

 cool as when it started. The cars being double-lined and the 

 pears cool when packed, the slight rise of temperature dur- 

 ing the day was again lowered at night by the current of cool 

 air passing from end to end through the ventilators. 



The peaches that made the record-breaking trips last sum- 

 mer were taken from the trees before sunrise. There is not 

 the slightest doubt that sod-grown peaches picked and treated 

 as described, could be shipped in ventilated cars all over the 

 country for ten days with perfect safety. They will, moreover, 

 ripen up naturally, be of far better quality, and stand up 

 much longer than any cultivated fruit from refrigerator cars. 

 Of course sod peaches would behave as well, or even better 

 in refrigerator cars, and it would pay to use them in years of 

 excessive production, for, if regularly iced, I believe they 

 would hold perfectly for thirty days. But such a thing as over- 

 production would be but an ugly dream of the past, for once 

 the buyers were assured of honest packing and peaches that 

 would open up in perfect order, the entire crops everywhere 

 would be sold upon the track, at prices that would pay the 

 grower a good profit, owing to vastly decreased cost of pro- 

 duction, and yet leave the buyer a very large margin also. So 

 much for sod peaches, by far the most difficult of the larger 

 fruits to market fresh, yet a safe and easy job compared to that 

 on cultivated trees, which, owing to loss of sustaining feed- 

 ing-roots, is rushed by the heat to sudden and often premature 

 ripening, usually not more than ten days to a given variety, 

 after which it drops. 



The plum, however, is much more easily handled ; from 

 sod trees they can be picked when the first color shows, and 



