HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. 



17 



to the fact that really first-class lettuce was very scarce in 1914-15 

 and that it was hard to classify small leafy heads as prime even 

 though they showed no signs of decay. However, the inspections were 

 made on as nearly the same basis as possible during both seasons. 

 The percentages of marketable heads in the 1914-15 holding lots were 

 fully as large, in general, as in the previous season. The effect of 

 careful handling is clearly shown in Table VIII and figure 12. For 

 the first inspection of the nonprecooled lots the average percentage 

 of prime heads was 46.4 in the carefully handled lots and only 11.5 

 in the commercially handled lots, a fourfold difference in favor of 

 careful handling. At the second inspection of the same lettuce 



PRECOOLED NON PREC001ED 



AFTER SIX DAY5JN ICED CAR, 



PER CENT DECAY 



100 90 60 70 60 SO 40 £0 20 



119.8 



CAREFU1? 49.81 



> PER CENT DECAY 



' 20 30 40 SO 60 70 BO 90 I0O- 



llUlUIIHIimiNIIHIS3.5 COMMERCIAL *79llliiniiiiiiiinilllllllllllllllHIHll 



THREE DAYS AFTER WITHDRAWAL (repacked lots) 



■MBMB™a«M6Z4 CAREFUL o7$BHHKHH^HB 



millllllHIIIIIIIHIIIIIIIIIIIIIHILTJTj9l3 rnMMFPn/n-93SH II Illlllllllllll lillllllll I 



Fig. 13.— Diagram illustrating the percentages of drop decay upon withdrawal from the car and three 

 days later in precooled and in nonprecooled commercially cut and carefully cut lettuce held at Pal- 

 metto, Fla., season of 1914-15. 



made three days later, the carefully handled lots showed an average 

 of 10.7 per cent of prime heads, whereas none of the commercially 

 handled lots were of this grade. The effect of precooling is also very 

 strikingly shown in these figures. 



Table VIII. — Average market condition of seven experimental lots of carefully cut and 

 commercially cut lettuce held six days in an iced car at Palmetto, Fla., during the season 

 of 1914-15. 







At withdrawal. 



Three days after withdrawal. 



Treatment. 



Carefully 

 cut. 



Commer- 

 cially cut. 



Repacked. 



Undisturbed. 





Carefully 

 cut. 



Commer- 

 cially cut. 



Carefully 

 cut. 



Commer- 

 cially cut. 



Nonprecooled: 



Prime heads 



Marketable heads. 



Precooled: 



Prime heads 



Marketable heads 



per cent.. 

 .......do.... 



do.... 



do.... 



46.4 

 98 



78.8 

 99.2 



11.5 

 80.6 



45 

 98 



10.7 

 89.7 



31 

 95.5 





 61.1 



6.4 

 92.9 



15.9 

 84.4 



23.3 

 96.2 



1.1 

 56.9 



3.9 



85 



, Table IX and figure 13 show the percentages of decay found in the 

 lettuce held at Palmetto during the season of 1914-15. It is inter- 



