92 INTENSIVE FARMING 



and cheapened at the same time that the losses 

 from rot were overcome. The outcome of the 

 matter is that the orchard and packing house 

 practices have been improved, with the result 

 that these operations now cost less than for- 

 merly; the losses in transit have been elimi- 

 nated, and the net profits to the industry in- 

 creased by the sum total of these savings. 



An additional safeguard is being investi- 

 gated. It is the "idea of promptly and rapidly 

 cooling the fruit to the temperature to be main- 

 tained in the refrigerator car before it starts 

 on its long journey across the continent, instead 

 of as formerly depending upon the ice in the 

 car to serve to supply refrigeration both to 

 reduce the initial temperature of the fruit and 

 to keep it cool regardless of the outside tem- 

 perature through which the car must pass in 

 its journey to a distant market. 



Precooling, as this process is called, takes 

 the fruit from the packing house and quickly 

 reduces the temperature to a point at which the 

 ripening processes and the activities of the rots 

 and moulds, which are the chief causes of loss 

 in stored fruit as well as fruit in transit, are 

 arrested. The plan of shipping under ice does 

 not demand fruit to be at this low temperature 

 when loaded, but takes the fruit direct from the 



