8 BULLETIN 331, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



to hold too many in the hand or to crush or bruise them in any way 

 while picking and before placing in the pail or bucket. A 5-pound 

 pail was used in the experimental work, the bottom being lined with 

 paper. The cherries were all placed in the pail carefully and not 

 dropped in or thrown in, as is often the commercial practice. In 

 emptying into the orchard box great care was also exercised to pre- 

 vent bruising and injury. The pail was first lowered to near the 

 bottom of the box, the fruit in emptying being held back by the hand 

 so as to allow it to roll gently into the box. The " lugs," or orchard 

 boxes, were lined with paper, and not more than 25 or at the most 30 

 pounds of fruit were ever placed in any one box. The boxes were set 

 in the shade until loaded on spring wagons for hauling to the packing 

 house. In hauling to the packing house the fruit was protected by 

 canvas or dusters from the dust and sun. 



The carefully handled lots were picked and packed by repre- 

 sentatives of the Bureau of Plant Industry, the ordinary 10-pound 

 box being used for packing. The fruit was packed directly from the 

 lug box, and all stemless, cracked, bruised, or injured fruit was 

 graded out, special effort being made to pack the facing layers firmly 

 and the rest of the box without bruising any of the fruit or breaking 

 down its internal structure. The results of this extra care and the re- 

 lation of handling methods are clearly brought out in the table and 

 charts previously referred to. These favorable results were obtained 

 by using practically all the ordinary equipment common in com- 

 mercial practice. No doubt better picking receptacles than the paper- 

 lined 5-pound pails, for instance, can be found. However, given any 

 picking receptacle or pail, the care exercised in picking the fruit, in 

 placing it in the pail, and in transferring it to the orchard box de- 

 termines the amount of injury in picking and the resultant decay. 

 The amount of injury done in picking and hauling is strikingly 

 shown in the inspection of several lots of commercially handled fruit 

 in the packing house before packing. In some instances 75 per cent 

 of all the fruit examined showed evidences of serious bruising. 



"While these investigations indicate that cherries can be success- 

 fully shipped in the 10-pound box if sufficient care is exercised in all 

 the operations of handling, they also prove that cherries under cer- 

 tain humid climatic conditions are more susceptible to injury in 

 handling than in the more arid sections. Various growers in the 

 Willamette Valley and in other humid sections of the Pacific North- 

 west have made trial shipments of cherries in berry crates, with uni- 

 formly good results. Much of the decay in transit results directly 

 from bruises and injuries incurred in packing and facing the fruit 

 in these 10 and 20 pound boxes. Nearly all of this bruising can be 

 eliminated and the cost of packing very materially reduced where 



