HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. $ 



bottom leaves are then trimmed off, and, the head is placed in the 

 hamper or crate. The sole purpose of the trimming is to improve 

 the appearance of the head, and often little or no attention is given 

 to the presence of signs of disease. The hampers are packed tightly, 

 the lettuce heads forming a compact mass that cools rather slowly. 

 In addition, the hampers are loaded in the cars in such a manner as 

 greatly to interfere with the natural air circulation. Figure 3 illus- 

 trates the usual arrangement of the load. The hampers are placed 

 horizontally, with the tops and bottoms alternating. By this arrange- 

 ment the hampers are fitted tightly together and the pressure is so 

 distributed that they do not break readily. As usually loaded into 



Fig. 1.— A lettuce field badly infested with the drop disease, from which no lettuce heads have been 



harvested. 



the cars the hampers are four layers high. This leaves ample air 

 space above the load, but the hampers are so close together that the 

 circulation of air between them is very slow, and those in the center 

 of the car retain the field heat for a long time. Most plant diseases 

 develop rapidly at the higher temperatures, and this is particularly 

 the case with lettuce drop. As a result, a great deal of lettuce has 

 arrived on the market in unsound condition. 



OUTLINE OF EXPERIMENTS IN 1913-14. 



CAREFUL CUTTING. 



In order to determine the effect of greater care in preparing lettuce 

 for shipment, various methods of cutting were tested in these investi- 

 gations. It seemed evident from the start that the infection occurred 



