PRECOOLING 



23 



In every season there is a greater or less amount of loss 

 and decay from the heating of the product in the center of the 

 package. The whole problem of precooling is to reduce the 

 temperature of the product so that it will carry safely from 

 the field to the market. 



Advantages of Precooling. 



Products which have been precooled, as a rule, reach the 

 market in very much better condition than those which have 

 not been precooled. They are crisper — as the botanist would 

 say, they are more turgid. They have lost less from evapora- 

 tion, and as a result they stand longer when they are exposed 

 for sale on the market, particularly if the weather happens 

 to be a little warm. In cool weather, if transported in good 

 condition, such products will stand fairly well without pre- 

 cooling. But in general precooling adds to the length of life 

 of the product on the market. 



Precooling No Cure-all. 



The Department of Agriculture, through its offices of hor- 

 ticulture and pomology, is this year taking up the problem 

 of the precooling of vegetables and has worked thus far with 

 lettuce and celery. It is, of course, too early to speak with 

 anything like decision or authority on the subject, but the 

 work up to the present time is encouraging. It looks as 

 though we were going to be able to put the material into the 

 market in enough better condition to justify the expense of 

 precooling. But let me tell 3^ou just here that precooling is 

 not the whole cure by any manner of means. Going along 

 with precooling, both in the case of fruits and in the case of 

 vegetables, is the problem of careful handling; and when we 

 study our records closely, we find that in the majority of 

 cases the results from careful handling are quite as great as 

 the results from precooling. Where the conditions are at all 

 favorable, the carefully handled product will carry very 

 satisfactorily, and it is a question in many localities whether 

 or not it will be necessary to precool the product if it has 

 been carefully handled in the field. By this I mean that the 

 grower take precautions to handle his crop in the field as 



