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The Golden Delicious apples harvested in pallet boxes showed 5 percent 

 less bruising as they went onto the packing line than the comparable apples 

 harvested in standard boxes. The apples handled in standard boxes received 

 38 percent of their bruising during picking and hauling and 62 percent in 

 storage and emptying compared with 33 percent and 67 percent respectively 

 for the fruit handled in pallet boxes. 



Red Delicious apples harvested in pallet boxes showed 18 percent less 

 bruising than similar apples harvested in standard boxes. Pallet box and 

 standard box-picked Winesaps were almost the same. Those in pallet boxes 

 showed only 1 percent less bruising than those in field boxes. The average 

 of all 3 varieties harvested in pallet boxes showed 7 percent less bruising 

 than those harvested in field boxes. 



Current Studies 



During the latter part of the commercial harvest in 1957, bruise studies 

 were started on 11 different types of pallet boxes. Four of each type of box 

 were used. Two equal test lots were harvested separately to comprise 2 diff- 

 erent tests. Fruit from 3 or more trees was picked and emptied into one pallet 

 box at a time by several pickers until that box was filled. The other test 

 boxes were filled in the same way from the same trees. Following commercial 

 practice the fruit was hauled to the edge of the orchard, placed on a flat-bed 

 trailer and hauled to the warehouse where bruises in a quarter-box sample of 

 apples were carefully counted without disturbing the apples in the rest of 

 the pallet box. Only bruises larger than one-quarter inch were counted. 



While the fruit was being harvested in the pallet boxes, a check sample 

 was being harvested into individual field boxes which had been placed empty 

 on pallets and filled so that the individual boxes were not picked up after 

 they were filled. They were thus filled 3 deep on the pallet, and 2 pallets 

 at a time were hauled from the orchard. This is the best commercial practice 

 for handling field or standard boxes. 



Another study was made of a specially designed pallet box. Each quarter 

 of the box was made with a different type of side and bottom structure and 

 each corner with a different type of construction. Bruise-free apples were 

 placed in a pallet box which was run over an obstacle course by a lift truck. 

 Bruises were then carefully counted and evaluated. This was repeated six times. 



Results 



The studies showed that pallet box handling caused less bruisinq than 

 the individual box handling of the most careful type. Bruising against the 

 sides of pallet boxes amounted to 19.4 bruises per 100 apples compared with 

 23.9 against the sides of individual apple boxes; against the bottom of pallet 

 boxes there were 15.8 bruises per 100 apples touching the bottom compared with 

 19 bruises per 100 apples touching the bottom of the individual boxes. 



