150 MODERN FRUIT MARKETING 
such fruit goes into the hold of the ship as ballast 
rather than in any other way. 
On the smaller boats for coast or river traffic, fruit is 
usually loaded by truckers who run the packages down 
the gangway into the freight quarters, but for the larger 
ocean boats, the packages are hoisted in a net run- 
ning from 5 to 15 barrels at one time. These are 
Fig. 107.—EFFICIENT TRANSPORTATION ON GOOD ROADS 
FOR 15 OR 20 MILES 
lifted by the donkey engine and lowered into the hold. 
Where this is carefully done, it causes little injury to 
the fruit, but where no special pains is taken, fruit can 
easily be spoiled or badly bruised. 
Water traffic is likely, in the near future, to play a 
very important role in competition with railroad ship- 
ment of fruit. The Panama Canal will aid materi- 
ally in getting considerable quantities of fruit products 
from the Western to the Eastern markets. For perish- 
