12 BULLETIN 714, U, S. DEPABTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



is kept at a higher temperature and in which the sorters work. 

 With such a system, using belts 30 feet long, no berry is exposed to 

 warm air for more than 1 minute and the air in which the berries 

 are packed is as cool as that in which they were stored. Careful 

 temperature tests made in such a sorting house in Massachusetts 

 showed that with the temperature of the berries at 7° C. (45° F.) and 

 that of the sorting room at 18° C. (65° F,), the temperature of the 

 berries was raised not more than 1 degree centigrade in sorting. 



VentUation. 



Adequate ventilation of the cranberry storehouse is necessary first 

 of all as a means of lowering the temperature of the fruit as soon 

 as possible after it is picked. Its importance is not by any means 

 confined to the effect on temperature, however, for, as pointed out 

 earlier, improper ventilation results in smothering and sometimes in 

 increased decay. In order to obtain the best results, cranberries 

 should be stored in ventilated boxes which are so piled as to permit 

 a free circulation of air among the berries. 



The same principle may well be extended to the packages in which 

 cranberries are shipped, particularly for the eariy shipments, which 

 are frequently made during very warm weather. In this connection, 

 the writers carried on experiments during both 1916 and 1917, in 

 which buries were shipped in containers of different types. The 

 results of these experiments are summarized in Table VI. In general 

 it may be stated that the fruit in the smaller, well-ventilated con- 

 tainers kept better than that in the barrels. Of these containers the 

 ventilated half-barrel box is perhaps the most satisfactory. 



Ventilated barrels in which there are from 28 to 32 small openings 

 (every other stave having two notches in each side) offer a convenient 

 substitute for the tight barrel and one which may be introduced at 

 slight expense and without the delay and effort incident to intro- 

 ducing a new package to the trade. Such barrels are now in use for 

 early shipments by at least one large grower. While the writers 

 have as yet been unable to carry out satisfactory comparative tests 

 of ventilated and tight barrels, in a simple shipment of Early Black 

 cranberries from Massachusetts the berries in the ventilated barrels 

 appeared drier than those in the tight barrels. It is hoped that next 

 season it will be possible to make shipping tests of a size sufficient 

 to settle the question as to the amount of advantage derived from 

 using ventilated barrels. 



