24 



PRECOOLING 



carefully as possible to prevent disease, and that at harvest 

 time he take advantage of the time of day and particularly 

 of the care of the product after it has been cut before it goes 

 into the car, to cool it as much as possible. In some instances, 

 it has been found that, if the product is left in the field or 

 left in an exposed place where it cannot be rained upon or 

 where the dew will not fall upon it over night, it will go into 

 the car and carry very much better than if harvested and im- 

 mediately loaded. 



Care In Handling. 



Another phase of the careful handling side, which is so in- 

 timately associated with and is such a factor in the precool- 

 ing, is the care which is exercised in preparing the heads 

 of lettuce and the stalks of celery to go into the package. 

 That is, if any diseased leaves or leaves which are disfigured 

 or in any way injured are allowed to go into the packages, you 

 have there a place where disease germs can immediately gain 

 an entrance. Those of you who have studied the records of 

 precooling with citrus fruits from California will remember 

 that the clipper punctures were one of the great sources of 

 loss in the citrus work, that as soon as the improved clippers 

 were devised and used, and clipper punctures were eliminat- 

 ed, a very considerable portion of the loss in transit was im- 

 mediately eliminated. The same law holds true with veget- 

 ables as with fruits. Rough handling and the breaking of 

 the leaves should be avoided. Leaves that have been sun- 

 burned should every one be eliminated from the product which 

 is to be packed for long distance transit, either in common re- 

 frigerator cars or refrigerator cars with the product pre- 

 cooled. 



I believe that we shall find, too — this is anticipating — that 

 the work of precooling will be of very great advantage to 

 garden products, particularly celery, that is to be held for a 

 considerable period in cold storage. If the celery could be 

 reduced to somewhere near the temperature at which it will 

 be held in cold storage before it actually goes into the storage 

 chamber where it is to remain for two or three months, I be- 

 lieve it would keep very much better. But along with that 

 is the question of the container in which the product is stored. 



