26 



BULLETIN 601, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



cause but little serious loss. The nonprecooled celery, on the other 

 hand, showed considerable bad soft-rot and complete soft-rot. At 

 the end of a 2-weeks' storage period the precooled showed less than 

 one-half of 1 per cent of bad soft-rot in contrast to 2.2 per cent in the 

 nonprecooled celery. Two weeks later there was still five times as 

 much bad soft-rot in the nonprecooled as in the precooled. At the 

 end of two weeks in storage the precooled celery showed 0.5 per cent 

 and the nonprecooled 1 .0 per cent of complete decay. At the last 

 inspection the precooled celery showed 0.2 per cent and the non- 

 precooled 4.8 per cent, or at the end of the storage periods there was 

 twenty times as much worthless celery in the nonprecooled as in the 

 precooled lots. The slight inconsistency between the amount of 

 complete decay at the end of two and four weeks is doubtless due to 

 the comparatively small number of crates used in the experiment. 

 The celery was discarded after the first inspection and a different lot 

 of crates used in the final inspection. 



Table XI. — Percentages of slight, bad, and complete soft-rot in the storage of precooled 

 and nonprecooled celery shipped from Florida, 1915. 





Disease. 





Stored two weeks. 



Stored four weeks. 





Pre- 

 cooled. 



Nonpre- 

 cooled. 



Pre- 

 cooled. 



Nonpre- 

 cooled. 



Slight soft-rot 



Bad soft-rot 



Complete soft-rot 





per cent. . 



do.... 



do.... 



5.9 



.4 

 . 5 



10. 2 

 2.2 



1 



13.3 

 1.2 

 .2 



21.2 

 5.9 



4.8 



The percentages in figure IS clearly show the possibility of storing 

 late Florida celery on the market from two to four weeks, especially 

 if it has been precooled. Nonprecooled celery may reach the market 

 in salable condition, but at this season of the year its storage is likely 

 to be attended by serious loss, due to decay and to its decreased 

 attractiveness. The practical applications of this may be found in 

 storing celery at periods when prices are low or the market is tem- 

 porarily overstocked. Celery then may be stored and held for a 

 better price. A glance at the market reports will show how celery 

 fluctuates at this season of the year, owing to weather conditions and 

 the shipments from other sections. Toward the end of the shipping 

 season, the storage of celery may help to bridge the interval between 

 the close of the Florida shipping season and the opening of the 

 season in the northern fields. However, this is done largely by ship- 

 ments of celery from Bermuda. 



Figure 19 shows the difference in the amount of decay that develops 

 in celery carried on the floor of the car and that carried on the top 

 tier. This is due, as previously suggested, to the much higher tem- 

 perature in the top of the car. The difference applies to the pre- 



