14 BULLETIN 35, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



temperature of the fruit can be reduced 15 or 20 degrees, depend- 

 ing; upon the natural night temperature. Figure 2 illustrates one 

 method of stacking the field boxes in the vineyard for night cooling. 

 If this method is impracticable, it is desirable to precool the packed 

 fruit in well-refrigerated rooms as promptly as possible before load- 

 ing on the cars. The ice of the refrigerator car can not safely be de- 

 pended upon to lower the temperature of the grapes if they have 

 been packed warm, for the tight package and the necessary close 

 loading of the drums render cooling very slow. If the grapes are 

 cooled before loading, however, the ice in the refrigerator car is only 

 needed to offset heat leakage from outside, and the temperature 

 can thus be held nearer the desired point. The ice is sufficient to 



Fig. 8. — Packing Emperor grapes. The men shown in the foreground fill in the sawdust 

 and shake it down between the grape berries by tapping the sides of the drum with 

 rubber-covered handles, to be seen on the table in the middle of the picture. The 

 sacks shown contain the dried and sifted sawdust. • 



accomplish this without difficulty, except in warm weather or in very 

 inferior refrigerator cars. Even under exceptional weather condi- 

 tions the rise of temperature is very slow within a cool grape package 

 or a closely loaded car well equipped with refrigeration facilities. 



The fruit must be carefully graded and all imperfect or injured 

 berries removed. In order to obtain the best results a special crew of 

 graders should be employed for this work. Inspection of the fruit in 

 the packing house and in the market has shown that unless the 

 closest supervision is maintained the quality of the pack is inferior 

 when the culling and grading are done by the packers themselves. 

 Moreover, proper inspection is possible only when the fruit is culled 

 and graded before it is conveyed to the packers. 



