184 PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION". 



ditkm of the sawdust and its preparation for use will be investigated. 

 The one great governing factor will be the introduction of these grapes 

 into the markets. Just how this can be done remains to be worked out. 



Quite an appreciable local market has been developed for cold storage 

 grapes in southern California. The fruit is hauled to the storage rooms 

 direct from the vineyards and held loosely in small field boxes. The 

 growers have learned to handle carefully in picking and culling, and 

 the grapes are placed in storage as soon after leaving the vine as pos- 

 sible. The varieties used are Flame Tokays. Muscat, Malaga. Emperor, 

 Verdal. and Ferrara. The first two are held in nice condition for 

 Thanksgiving and the rest for the Christmas market. 



I can not close this discussion of the results of the cold storage experi- 

 ments without calling special attention to the Almeria. or more prop- 

 erly Ojanez. which is the variety mainly shipped from Spain packed 

 in cork. \Ye have been able to obtain small quantities of this variety 

 from the Tulare Station and the results have been most encouraging-. A 

 glance at the table shows how far superior this variety is for holding 

 than any Ave have had under observation. It seems especially fitted 

 for this purpose, and it is a pity that it has not been successfully grown 

 commercially in California. It seems that the variety was given a wide 

 trial years ago with uniformly poor results, due. we now have reason 

 to assume, to the fact that proper treatment was not given it. The 

 vines have to be long pruned and possibly may need trellising in this 

 State. The fruit has such splendid shipping and keeping qualities that 

 a systematic and thorough study of its cultural requirements in Cali- 

 fornia is well worthy of attention. 



TRANSPORTATION INVESTIGATION S . 



These investigations were begun at Lodi last year (1908) and were 

 continued during the grape shipping season just closed. The work con- 

 sisted mainly in the study of the relation of handling in picking, 

 packing, and shipping to the occurrence of decay and deterioration of 

 table grapes in transit from California to Eastern markets. For sev- 

 eral years considerable loss from decay has resulted in the shipments 

 of Flame Tokay grapes from Lodi. and it was at the urgent request of 

 the grape growers and shippers of that section that the Bureau inves- 

 tigations were undertaken. \Yhen we began work at Lodi we had no 

 theory other than the general principle worked out in the case of other 

 fruits and in California grapes in storage: That the common molds, 

 which are the cause of the ordinary forms of decay of fruit in transit 

 and storage, have not the power to penetrate the sound normal skin of 

 the fruit. As mentioned in the storage investigations above, it has been 

 found that the molds gain entrance through mechanical abrasions made 

 in the skin of the fruit in preparing it for market, and that if the 

 skin can be maintained in sound condition the ordinary decay will be 

 prevented. 



The plan of the work consisted in forwarding a number of crates and 

 boxes of grapes, packed under known conditions, through to Xew York, 

 where one of the Bureau staff received the fruit and carefully inspected 

 it. This inspection consisted in cutting apart all bunches and segre- 

 gating the decayed and injured berries and determining the actual 

 percentages by weight on the day of arrival, and three, five, and seven 



