HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. 



13 



than half of the heads showed drop decay. Three days after with- 

 drawal from the car the precooled carefully handled lettuce showed 

 only 25.7 per cent of drop-rot, whereas the precooled commercially 

 handled lots showed 78.3 per cent. The nonprecooled commercially 

 handled lettuce showed an average of 94.8 per cent of drop decay or, 

 in other words, at the final inspection of these lots practically every 

 head was decayed more or less seriously. 



COMPARISON OF HOLDING AND SHIPPING LOTS. 



The differences in the amount of decay found in the experimental 

 shipments of lettuce inspected at the northern markets and in cor- 

 responding lots held in Palmetto are shown in Table V. 



Table V. — Comparison of the total percentages of decay in precooled and nonprecooled 

 lots of carefully cut and commercially cut lettuce shipped to northern markets and in 

 comparable lots held at Palmetto, Fla.. during the season of 1913-14. 



Treatment. 



At withdrawal. 



Carefully 

 cut. 



Commer- 

 cially cut. 



Three days after 

 withdrawal. 



Carefully 

 cut. 



Commer- 

 cially cut 



Nonprecooled: 



7 holding lots per cent. . 



7 comparable shipments do 



Precooled: 



7 holding lots do 



7 comparable shipments do 



2 

 4.9 



55.9 

 39.9 



9.6 



7.2 



78.9 

 30.6 



22.2 

 10.4 



96.2 

 53.2 



50.6 

 15.5 



Table V shows that even at the first inspection the average decay 

 was greater in the lettuce held in Florida than that in the lettuce 

 shipped to northern markets, in spite of the fact that inspections at 

 the North were made nearly two days later than those at Palmetto. 

 At the second inspection the decay, as might be expected, was much 

 greater in the lettuce held in Florida than in that held in the northern 

 markets. This is undoubtedly accounted for by the difference in 

 temperature between the two parts of the country during January 

 and February, the months in which the experiments were carried on. 



OUTLINE OF EXPERIMENTS IN 1914-15. 



The experiments with lettuce, as outlined in 1913-14, were con- 

 tinued throughout the season of 1914-15. The weather conditions 

 during this season were generally unfavorable, resulting in a poor 

 quality of lettuce and very fight shipments. The lettuce as a rule 

 failed to make solid heads, and that shipped from the Palmetto sec- 

 tion was chiefly of the leaf type. For this reason it was impossible, 

 to conduct the experiments on as large a scale as was desired. How- 

 ever, a number of cars were precooled, and experimental lots were 

 again shipped to New York. 



