Earle on Refrigerator Cars. 469 
fruit to be put on the market after its full flavor and qual- 
ity has been developed. The flat, insipid quality, and lack 
of flavor so often noticed in California fruits on the eastern 
markets, comes very largely from the pernicious habit of green 
picking. A peach that is ripe enough to be fully mellow is 
hard to handle without bruising, but they should hang on the 
tree till fully grown and colored. A peach that would be 
‘mellow if left on the tree till to-morrow, is in just the right 
condition to pick to-day. Pears, on the other hand, should 
be picked green, at least ten days to two weeks before soft- 
ening, and should be ripened in a elose, dark place. “For 
this reason, they can be safely shipped in tight boxes or 
barrels in open ears, unless it is intended to place them in 
cold storage on arrival. In this case, they should be shipped 
under refrigeration, to retard the ripening process as much 
as possible. 
“Refrigerator cars were first built for the meat trade. The 
meat was hung in cold-storage houses, and was loaded into the 
ears at or near the freezing point. In a tight, well built car 
such a cold load would warm up very slowly, and a small 
amount of ice served to carry it safely to its destination. When 
it was attempted to use these cars for fruit, the het load, fresh 
from the fields, soon melted the limited ice supply, and the cars 
invariably arrived heated and in bad order. To use these cars 
successfully, it was found necessary to build cooling houses at 
the shipping points, in which the fruit could be cooled off be- 
fore loading, as in the case of the meat. This caused delay in 
getting the fruit on the market, and made much additional ex- 
pense. It, however, demonstrated the success of refrigeration 
for the transportation of fruits, and soon cars were built espe- 
cially for the fruit trade, with sufficient ice capacity to cool off 
a load of hot fruit in transit, and to keep it cool. At the 
present time there are w number of refrigerator car lines, with 
specially built fruit cars, that are actively competing for the 
fruit and vegetable carrying trade; so that any point, having 
sufficient business to offer, can secure efficient car service, with 
eompetent men to look after the proper loading and icing of the 
