16 BULLETIN 63, U. S, DEPARTMENT OF AGEICULTURE. 



to seriously injure a large percentage of the oranges -which they handle. Some packers 

 also do a great deal of harm by dragging the oranges around in the bins and by tossing 

 the off sizes into the neighboring bins. Abrasions due to the presence of gravel, 

 twigs, splinters, protruding nails, or other foreign matter in the picking receptacles, 

 field boxes, or packing bins may have far-reaching consequences. 



Bruises caused by dropping the fruit in the various stages of picking or packing 

 have been found to cause serious loss from decay. There are a number of places 

 where oranges may be greatly damaged by dropping. First of all, the picker may 

 toss them carelessly into his picking basket or bag. Careless pickers frequently 

 throw the oranges into the open receptacle by means of a shove with the clippers, 

 the fruit sometimes falling as far as 3 or 4 feet. Serious damage may also result from 

 emptjong the fruit roughly into the field box. Plate I, figure 1, shows how the bag 

 or basket may be held too far above the box and the fruit allowed to fall too great 

 a distance. In case the bottom of the box is covered with twigs or small pieces of dirt 

 the injurj' is greater. A sack which opens only at the top and from which the fruit 

 must be poured into the boxes is likely to cause severe damage because of the bumps 

 to which the fruit is subjected. Usually no greater care is observed when emptying 

 the fruit into the field box and from that into the hopper of the washer, grader, or sizing 

 machine. The washing machine provides excellent opportunities -for the infliction 

 of mechanical injuries and for infection from dirty water. This phase of the subject 

 will be discussed later. 



Decayed fruit and trash should not be left in the boxes or allowed to accumulate on 

 the floor and under the packing bins. The slightest breeze will scatter great quan- 

 tities of blue-mold spores from these rotted oranges over all the fruit in the house. 

 A clean, well-lighted packing house greatly diminishes decay by reducing the chances 

 of infection. It has a beneficial infiuence on the workmen as well, offering a great 

 incentive to better work. Moreover, a clean packing house is a good indication of 

 the character of work being done throughout and indicates whether genuine efforts 

 are being made to improve the methods of handling. 



The hopper into which the fruit is emptied has always been the source of much 

 injury to citrus fruits in Florida. In the old style of packing house, existing before 

 the work of the Bureau of Plant Industry was begun, the hopper was frequently large 

 enough to hold a wagonload of fruit. Few, if any, of these are now in use. Even the 

 more desirable small hopper was constructed with such a steep gravity run that the 

 .fruit was subjected to a severe bump on reaching the bottom. In going through the 

 machinery or over the grading table other chances for injury occurred, and the final 

 drop into the packing bin was sure to add several bruises. The desirable hopper has 

 padded sides and allows the fruit to be emptied gradually by means of moving belts, 

 which carr\' the fruit to the washing machine or grading belt; it is not necessary for the 

 fruit to fall by gravity at any stage of its journey. 



The most serious form of injury, however, is made by the clippers in remoAang the 

 fruit from the tree. These clipper cuts are not as prevalent in Florida oranges as was 

 foimd to be the case in the California fruit, for the reason that the Florida oranges are 

 round and do not have the depression at the stem end which exists in the Washington 

 Navel. Nevertheless, enormous damage has been done to the Florida fruits either 

 by cutting the skin near the stem end when severing them from the branch or by 

 puncturing them with the points. It is essential to have the ends of the clippers 

 rounded or blunted in order to eliminate the possibility of piercing the fruit. 



The presence of long stems on the oranges may be reckoned as equally disastrous. 

 For this reason, in determining the character of work being done by a picking crew 

 or individual picker long stems are included as imperfections. A long stem is just 

 as serious, if not more dangerous, than an orange which has been injured in some way. 

 The latter decays, but this rot seldom affects a neighboring orange; whereas a long 

 stem has ami)le opportunity to injure a number of fruits in their progress from the tree 



