SPOILAGE OF FRESH FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 



59 



DISCUSSION 



Nearly 1% million carlo ts of fresh fruits and vegetables were un- 

 loaded at the New York City market during the 7-year period under 

 study; approximately 48 percent of the total unloads were rail ship- 

 ments. Rail unloads at New York City in turn accounted for approx- 

 imately 15 percent of all fresh fruits and vegetables that were ship- 

 ped by rail to markets throughout the United States during the 

 period. 



The present summary covers the inspection of 117,613 carlots, or 

 approximately 16 percent of all rail unloads; however, because there 

 was some lack of uniformity in extent of coverage for the different 

 commodities a number of different fruits and vegetables were not 

 represented in the inspections. The more important of these were 

 bananas, lemons, pineapples, dandelions, eggplants, kale, mushrooms, 

 parsnips, squashes, Swiss chard, turnips (including rutabagas), and 

 watermelons. In table 39 there is shown for each of these commodi- 

 ties the total number of carlots unloaded during the 7-year period 

 and the percentage of the latter that were rail shipments. In addi- 

 tion 16 other fruits and 36 other vegetables listed in the annual reports 

 of unloads at New York City were not represented by inspections. 

 Most of them were distinctly of minor importance, and together 

 they totaled less than 2 percent of all unloads for the 7-year period. 



Table 39. — Important commodities not included in present study 



Commodity 



Carlots unloaded at 

 New York City 

 during the 7-year 

 period 



Commodity 



Carlots unloaded at 

 New York City 

 during the 7-year 

 period 



Total 



Percent- 

 age that 

 were rail 

 shipments 



Total 



Percent- 

 age that 

 were rail 

 shipments 



Fruits: 



Number 

 81 , 549 

 20, 329 

 16,714 

 12,693 



3,627 

 6, 826 

 6,011 



Percent 

 Trace 



92 

 Trace 



99.7 



2 

 3 



11 



Vegetables— Continued 



Number 

 8,232 

 3,169 

 5,945 

 2,768 

 9,259 

 16,018 

 26, 497 



Percent 

 15 







18 



Pineapples 



Squashes.. . 



9 



Mixed fruits 2 . .. 



Swiss chard . 







Vegetables: 



Turnips (and rutabagas). 



46 



84 



Eggplants, .. 



Mixed vegetables 2 



98 



Kale 









1 Only bananas sold in New York City included; 181,966 carlots were unloaded. 



2 Practically all of the carlots of mixed fruits and of mixed vegetables were made up of commodities that 

 are represented by inspections. 



Of those commodities that were included in the present study, 14 

 were fruits and 31 were vegetables, or 45 different commodities. For 

 purposes of ready comparison all are listed in table 40, together with 

 data on total carlots inspected (both in number and in percentage of 

 all rail unloads of that commodity) and with data on average percent- 

 age of decay reported. 



A total of 16,520 inspections was made on fruits. The percentage 

 of rail shipments inspected ranged from 1 percent for oranges to 55 

 percent for pomegranates. Average coverage of rail shipments was 

 14.3 percent. 



