Watermelons. = About 15 percent of the watermelons are damaged 
by anthracnose, stem end rot, and other decays before they reach 
the consumer. Losses may be reduced by not shipping melons from 
fields in which anthracnose is causing serious damage, by treating 
the freshly cut stems with bordeaux paste after the melons have 
been loaded in the cars, and by careful handling and loading to 
avoid injury. 
Losses in Processing Farm Crops 
In addition to the many losses to crops and livestock at the 
farm level and those incurred in transportation and handling of 
the unprocessed material, important losses are incurred during 
preprocessing and processing procedures, Many of these losses 
could be avoided, but some only at prohibitive costs. Certain 
products are improperly handled prior to leaving the farm, and 
in such cases preventive or corrective measures during processing 
are of little avail. 
The distinction between avoidable and unavoidable losses is not 
always well defined. The removal of fruit and vegetable peel or 
rind prior to caming, freezing, or dehydration is an example of 
the difficulty of making such a determination. Orange rindi is 
used as cattle feed; therefore, rind that is not recovered would 
be a loss of a byproduct. Peels and pits of some other fruits are 
not acceptable for feed, and when removed do not constitute a loss 
in themselves. However, appreciable amounts of the fruit or 
vegetable pulp may be removed with the peel and would be considered 
a loss. In the process of juice extraction there are losses due 
to spillage and failure to recover the juice from the rag and peel. 
It has not always been possible to recover and use these edible 
juices economically, and frequently where such juices are recovered 
it has been done in order to avoid stream contamination. 
Another loss is the reduction in nutritive value. The loss of 
carotene in the harvesting, drying (field or rotary), and storage 
of alfalfa is an example. This loss is avoidable since methods 
to reduce it are available. 
The discarding or unwise use of materials known as agricultural 
residues hes not been included among the losses covered in this 
report. Among such materials are wheat anc other grain straws, 
corm stover and cobs, stems and pods of soybeans, cotton stalks, 
and sugarcane bagasse. Uses for nutskells have been suggested. 
One use is returning them to the soil, and frequently they are 
used as fuel. Cottonseed hulls and rice hulls are also frequently 
used as fuel. Oat hulls are used for the producticn of chemicals, 
end possibly such a use could apply to cottonseed and rice hulls, 
so that their use for fuel might not be the best use for naticnal 
welfare. 
- 112 - 
