SPOILAGE OF CEANBERRIES AFTER HARVEST. 15 



SEPARATING AND SORTING. 



Very important and difficult to eliminate are the numerous un- 

 noticed injuries caused in the processes of separating, sorting, and 

 packing the fruit. Franklin (4, p. 21) has published data which 

 show that the bruising caused by running berries through the sepa- 

 rator and by dropping them into a barrel markedly increases the 

 amount of rot. The results of the investigation of the writers fully 

 substantiate these conclusions. Great injury is also caused by squeez- 

 ing the berries in sorting. In this process the decayed berries are 

 often detected by touch even more than by sight, and much sound 

 fruit is thus squeezed or pressed unnecessarily. The resulting bruises, 

 while imperceptible, frequently serve to start decay. 



An illustration of the relation of bruises received in separating 

 and sorting to the development of decay in storage is found in the 

 results of a test made at Whitesbog, N. J., in the fall of 1917, in 

 which 75 bushels of Early Black cranberries were picked on Septem- 

 ber 14 from plats which had been thoroughly sprayed during the sum- 

 mer. On September 21 the berries from each plat were divided into 

 three representative parts. One part was then set aside in the storage 

 house without further handling. The second part was sorted by 

 hand on stationary sorting tables by commercial sorters, the percent- 

 age of unsound fruit noted, and the sound berries placed in the storage 

 house. The berries remaining were then separated by machine and 

 finally by hand in the usual commercial manner, the percentage 

 of unsound fruit noted, and the apparently sound berries placed in 

 storage. In this last method practically all unsound berries were re- 

 moved by the machines, and the berries therefore suffered very little 

 by handling during the final process of hand sorting. 



All the berries were stored for nearly six weeks in ventilated stor- 

 age boxes of 1-bushel capacity in a house in which the temperature 

 varied from 15° C. to 7° C. during the season. For purposes of 

 further comparison, 32 bushels of the Early Black variety that were 

 picked on the same day (Sept. 14) from unsprayed plats on the 

 same bog were divided, handled, and stored at the same time and in 

 the same manner as those from the sprayed plats. Berries of good 

 keeping quality (sprayed) were thus compared with those of poor 

 keeping quality (unsprayed) as to the effect upon them of separating 

 or sorting before storage. 



On October 31 all the berries were removed from storage, sorted 

 by commercial sorters, and the percentage of unsound fruit noted. 

 The results are summarized in Table IX. 



