HANDLING AND SHIPPING FEESH CHERRIES AND PRUNES. 15 



therefore held in an iced car at Salem under conditions approximat- 

 ing transit conditions as nearly as possible. During the season of 

 1913, although arrangements had been made for several car-lot 

 shipments of fresh prunes to one market, the weather and other 

 conditions were such as to make necessary the abandonment of these 

 arrangements. During that season, therefore, no comparison of 

 carefully and commercially handled fruit was possible, and the 

 experimental work had to be confined largely to precooling tests with 

 carefully handled fruit, maturity tests, and a comparison of fruit 

 from different sections and soils. While the weather conditions 

 during the two seasons mentioned were not the most favorable for 

 fresh-fruit shipments, they were such as occur quite frequently dur- 

 ing a series of years, and if prunes can not be shipped more or less 

 successfully during such seasons entire dependence must be placed 

 on the evaporated or dried products, and everything should be done 

 with a view to growing fruit especially for this purpose and to 

 curing a product of the very highest market quality. 



RELATION OF HANDLING TO DECAY IN TRANSIT. 



During the season of 1911 a number of experimental tests were 

 made of carefully and commercially handled fruit. The carefully 

 handled lots were picked and packed by representatives of the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, the fruit being secured from the same 

 orchards and at the same time as that handled commercially. The 

 lots are comparable in every way except in the care exercised in the 

 picking, hauling, and packing. 



Table IV. — Decay in carefully and commercially handled prunes, Willamette 



Valley, season of 1911. 





Time and manner of handling and 

 extent of decay (per cent). 



Time in iced car. 



On withdrawal. 



Six days after with- 

 drawal. 





Care- 

 ful. 



Commer- 

 cial. 



Care- 

 ful. 



Commer- 

 cial. 





0.7 



.4 



2.7 



3.5 



7.1 

 . 6.8 



2.1 

 3.7 

 6.9 



8.7 





16.6 





23.3 







The data presented in Table IV, which are illustrated graphically 

 in figure 4, show the differences in decay between the carefully 

 handled and commercially handled fruit. These lots were held in an 

 iced car for 10, 15, and 20 days, and were inspected on withdrawal 

 and again 2, 4, and 6 days afterwards, only the results of the in- 



