44 PROCEEDINGS OF NINETEENTH FRUIT GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



Third — Another fact showing further limitation in the possible use of 

 the ventilator service, be it expedited ever so much, is the impossibility 

 of using it as refrigerators are frequently used, in shipments to smaller 

 markets, where the receiver ices the car on arrival, uses it as a cold- 

 storage warehouse, and quite frequently takes five or six days to sell the 

 contents. There are Eastern dealers who sell right from the car on the 

 track, and only remove fruit as they want it. Ventilators for these 

 people would be useless. But for the refrigeration, they could not take 

 fruit in car lots at all. 



Fourth — At this end of the line a corresponding disadvantage exists 

 against the ventilators in the inability to safely use them in the collection 

 of part-car shipments from small stations. 



Fifth — One more, and a very serious, disadvantage which the shipper 

 in ventilators to far Eastern points must accept and make the best of, is 

 that his fruit cannot be left on the tree to so fully mature, to sweeten, to 

 acquire size, flavor, and color, as it may be if forwarded under refrigera- 

 tion, and his prices must undoubtedly vary accordingly, for it is the size 

 and beauty of our fruits that sell them. 



So much for limitations in the possible use of the system. In spite of 

 them all, there is a field for the ventilator, a possible use for the expe- 

 dited service that will warrant its continuance, and result in profit to 

 the grower and shipper. 



Primarily in its favor is the great desideratum — economy. Were it 

 possible to permanently transform the present cost of refrigeration (say, 

 $100 per car) into net profit to the producer, the green, or rather the 

 fresh-fruit industry, of the State of California would be simultaneously 

 transformed — into a paying business. 



It must be borne in mind that throughout a large portion of the State 

 the Bartlett pear crop of 1895 was a comparative failure. In ordinary 

 years a large portion of this crop will reach markets in ventilator cars. 

 During the season just closed some shippers found their car orders for 

 mixed fruits curtailed, because of their inability to supply the required 

 proportion of Bartletts. Peaches and other fruits that would ordinarily 

 have gone into these mixed cars were, perforce, obliged to reach other 

 markets under refrigeration. 



With the impetus given to ventilator loading by the necessity of their 

 use for the Bartlett crop next year, the railroad company will undoubt- 

 edly be warranted in making the service comparatively regular. This 

 regularity will undoubtedly in its turn tend to widen its popularity and 

 use. Regarding the possibility of a full crop of pears throughout the 

 State and its bearing on this subject, I quote the opinion of one of the 

 largest, oldest, and most experienced fruit-shipping firms on the Pacific 

 Coast. They say: "We are firmly convinced that with a full crop of 

 Bartlett pears throughout the State, unless these pears can be trans- 

 ported to the extreme Eastern markets in ventilator cars, on expedited 

 time and at a low rate of freight, no revenue will be derived for the 

 shipper, for with a full crop of Bartlett pears in the State, if the growers 

 and shippers are obliged to pay the present freight rate, and in addition 

 to such rate refrigerator charges also, the fruit will not sell for enough 

 to cover the charges of freight and refrigeration. 



" The above has been fully demonstrated this season when we have had 

 but a light crop of Bartletts; and with a full crop of Bartletts in this State, 

 unless the canners take a large quantity of the fruit, I see no help for 



