26 



PRECOOLING 



and as a result, the temperature in the container can be re- 

 duced much more quickly than it can in the large one. That 

 is a very considerable factor of safety. 



To sum up the situation, I can simply give you hints of a 

 few things that seem to be more or less self-evident and a few 

 things which have come out of our work. 



Perhaps fifty or sixty per cent, of the problem of long stor- 

 age and of long transit shipment is careful handling. An- 

 other considerable percentage of the problem is involved in 

 the type of container. In a few sections of Florida, par- 

 ticularly around Sanford, they have been using a type of con- 

 tainer for shipping lettuce, which is built on the same prin- 

 ciple as the celery crate, which allows practically two layers 

 of heads of lettuce to be placed in the package, instead of the 

 large barrel-high hamper which is generally used. The bar- 

 rel-high hamper has wire around the middle, is made like a 

 Delaware peach basket, only it is as high as a barrel. It is 

 very slender. In the bottom they can put about four heads, 

 up further they can put six or seven heads, and on the top 

 from seven to twelve, depending on their size. In this up- 

 per portion of the container, the heads are packed very solid- 

 ly, and that is where the decay starts. In the container which 

 has been devised as a substitute for this we have practically all 

 outside layers of heads. There is no tightly packed inner 

 portion which is difficult to cool. The lettuce carries very 

 much better in those two-layer containers than in the ham- 

 per. It is difficult to get the growers to use the crate, be- 

 cause it comes in the flat and it, therefore, makes more work 

 on the farm to prepare a container of that sort. Hampers 

 come all set up, and they nest — one slips inside the other. 

 For that reason — they are all from Missouri — it is up to you 

 to show them that it is to their advantage to substitute a 

 different kind of container for the one they have been ac- 

 customed to use. Then on the market — ^the fellow who vends 

 the stuff is from Missouri also — you have to prove to him that 

 it is to his advantage to buy the stuff in this new kind of con- 

 tainer. For very long distance shipment and for long hold- 

 ing of highly perishable products like lettuce and celery, it 

 is very, very desirable that the best type of container be used. 



