SHIPMENT OF ORANGES FROM FLORIDA. 49 



from which decay may develop, the following points are recommended to the attention 

 of growers and shippers of Florida citrus fruits: 



Workmen, especially pickers, should be paid by the day and not by the quantity 

 of work done. 



More careful attention to the details of picking and to the organization and inspec- 

 tion of the picking crews is necessary. Each member of the crew should be held 

 responsible for the character of his work. An efficient field foreman should supervise 

 the pickers, watch theii* output, and insist on careful handling. He should be 

 proliibited from picking fruit liimself. 



Clippers with rounded or blunted points should be supplied. These should be 

 frequently inspected by the foreman to prevent theii* becoming dull or loose at the 

 joint. 



Picking sacks of hea\'y material, which have partially closed mouths, allowing the 

 fruit to be emptied from the bottom, and having a capacity of not more than half of a 

 large standard field box, should be used. 



Pickers should not pull the fruit from the tree. All oranges should be severed by 

 means of the "double cut. " 



Fruit should be placed carefully in the picking sack and not dropped or tossed in. 



The picking sack should be lowered into the field box and the oranges allowed to 

 roll out gently without appreciable drop. 



No fruit should be picked up from the ground and placed in the field boxes. 



Smaller field boxes of lighter materials are recommended. 



The fruit should not project above the top of the field box, and the latter should 

 be transported to the packing house on a spring wagon. The driver should be given 

 an especially prepared seat and not allowed to sit on the fruit. 



Each picker and packer should be required to wear gloves. 



Picking receptacles, field boxes, and packing bins should be kept free of gravel, 

 twigs, splinters, protruding nails, or other foreign matter. 



The efficiency of the packing house may be spoiled by a desire to save floor space. 

 Simplicity should govern the choice and disposal of all equipment. 



The desirable hopper is small, has padded sides, and allows the fruit to be emptied 

 gradually by means of mo\TLng belts. The fruit should not fall by gravity at any 

 stage of its journey. 



Uniform and definite gi-ading rules should bo established for the State. 



Wherever washing is not absolutely necessary in order to render the fruit market- 

 able it should be omitted. 



Water in the soaking tank should be frequently changed, and sprays of fresh water 

 should be directed against the fruit as it passes through the washing machine. 



The best type of washing machine has the fruit in plain sight at all times, allows 

 no pressure on the oranges save that afforded by their own weight, does not allow 

 the fruits to tumble over or against each other, and does not allow twigs, thorns, 

 nails, etc., to become lodged in the runway through which the fruit must pass. 



Fruit should never be packed while moist. An artificial drier in which a warm 

 air blast is cu'culated around the fruit seems to be a necessity from the standpoint of 

 thorough work and careful handling. 



The sawdust method of cleaning grapefruit is ineffective as well as highly injurious. 



Loose packs of fmit are more liable to be injured in transit than those of medium 

 height with every orange fu-mly in place. 



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

 or under the packing bins in the packing houses. 



Curing is unwise, as the delay increases the chance for the infection of bruises or 

 injiu-ed spots and facilitates the development of decay before shipment and in transit. 



