SPOILAGE OF CEANBEiPRIEg AFTER HARVEST. 3 



though this is in itself a cause of considerable loss and should be 

 carefully guarded against. 



Very important and more difficult to eliminate are the numerous 

 unnoticed injuries occurring in the processes of harvesting, separat- 

 ing (milling), sorting (hand screening), and packing the fruit. It 

 has been shown that these injuries, while too slight to affect the im- 

 mediate sale of the fruit, indirectly bring about serious losses by 

 starting decay. This relation of bruising to the starting of fungous 

 rot will be considered later. 



Slightly injured berries also dry out and shrivel much more quickly 

 than sound fruit. Shrinkage in storage will be reduced, therefore, 

 by care in harvesting and handling the fruit. 



DRYING OUT. 



Cranberries held in storage will gradually shrink even though no 

 decay occurs. An experienced observer (6, 1913, p. 20) estimates 

 this shrinkage as high as 10 per cent in the case of Early Black cran- 

 berries held in common storage at the bog for late trade. A part 

 of this loss is due to the natural ripening processes mentioned below 

 and part in some cases to the actual loss of water by evaporation. 

 Bruising the fruit increases its rate of drying out and shriveling. 



The rate at which water is lost by evaporation depends in part di- 

 rectly on the moistness of the air. In tests made by keeping weighed 

 quantities of cranberries in containers with air of known humidity 

 it was found that for any given temperature the loss in weight in- 

 creased with the decrease in the humidity of the air. (Table I.) 



Table I. — Decrease in the weight of cranberries of the Howe variety held for 

 36 days in air of different humidities at certain temperatures. 



Air conditions. 



Relative humidity (per cent). 



100 



80 



65 



35 



o 



Temperature 5° to 10° C. (41° to 50° F.): 



Loss in weiglit per cent. . 



Temperature 2° to 5° C. (36° to 41° F.): 



Loss in weight do 







.5 



4 

 1.5 



5 

 3 



6 



4.5 



9 

 6 



a Over concentrated sulphuric acid. 



It is evident from these results that considerable humidity in the 

 air of the storehouse is desirable to prevent the drying out of the 

 fruit. Under the conditions ordinarily obtaining in cranberry store- 

 houses the humidity is sufficient to prevent any serious loss from dry- 

 ing. In New Jersey the higher temperatures after picking are favor- 

 able for drying, and under some conditions of storage fruit kept for 

 a long time may actually shrivel. 



It should be mentioned in this connection that in a series of tests 

 extending through both 1916 and 1917, in which cranberries of both 



