ACTUAL RESULTS IN CALIFORNIA 159 



Frozen fruit used to be a constant source of annoyance 

 and loss. Shippers often forwarded fruit which they had 

 every reason to believe had been frosted, and the trade was 

 getting to distrust the California product. However, the 

 difficulty in eliminating frozen stock was almost insur- 

 mountable, for imtil recently there was no method of know- 

 ing whether an orange was injured or not except by cutting 

 it. To throw out a man's entire crop because 25 per cent, 

 of it had been frosted was such heroic treatment that some 

 associations or growers would ship a partially damaged 

 crop, to the great injury of the rest of the industry. Against 

 such practices the exchange system took a firm stand. It 

 demanded that only good fruit should be shipped, and if 

 damaged fruit did by any chance get into the pack the in- 

 jured party must receive prompt and full restitution. The 

 problem is not now so serious, for, in 1913, Mr. Frank 

 Chase of Riverside devised a water separator for frozen 

 oranges. This invention was not patented but was pre- 

 sented to the whole citrus industry and will form a lasting 

 tribute to Mr. Chase's public spiritedness. 



Immature fruit formed a separate problem. There has 

 always been a strong inducement to ship to the favorable 

 holiday market, but sometimes the fruit was picked quite 

 green and was artificially colored. In this manner con- 

 sumers were deceived into buying sour fruit. Consequently 

 the reputation of California oranges for sweetness was 

 rapidly falling. The Tulare region was the worst sinner 

 in shipping immature fruit, and aflfairs got so serious that 

 the United States Board of Food and Drug Inspection had 

 to intervene. By food inspection decision number 133, 

 issued in March, 191 1, the Board decided that green 

 oranges that had been artificially colored by sweating were 

 adulterated under the meaning of the Food and Drugs 

 Act. This ruling put an end to shipping unlabelled sweated 



