PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS ' CONVENTION. 189 



mercial limit above mentioned. This was accomplished by extra care 

 in culling and elimination of all bunches showing excessive decay when 

 picked. These were frequently found to be the tight bunches, and they 

 were always cut apart to determine whether there were any decayed 

 berries hidden in the middle of the bunch. 



TABLE 4. 



Percentages of Decay in Individual Shipments on A \ 



N&U) York. 



Commer- Careful Packed 

 cial Pack Pack in Cork 

 Crates. Crates I Boxes. 



Packed in 

 Redwood 

 Sawdust 

 Boxes. 



3 



4 



5 



6 



6 (after rain) 



0.90 



0.17 



0.02 



1.80 



0.70 



0.72 



2.52 



0.50 





3.18 



0.28 



0.18 



3.52 



1.00 



0.10 



3.75 



1.05 





24.83 



1.92 





5.66 



1.33 



0.55 



6.50 



2.41 



4.94 



9.42 



2.05 



2.38 



13.32 



1.95 



1.25 



0.00 

 0.07 

 0.10 

 0.10 

 0.05 

 0.11 



0.50 

 0.77 

 0.75 

 1.20 



Table 5 and chart show the percentages of decay found on the bottom 

 and top tiers in commercial crates put up by careful packers compared 

 with the commercial pack of packers handling rather carelessly. The 

 figures show that where there is less susceptibility to decay there is not 

 so wide a difference between the bottom and top tiers. The figures for 

 the careful packers are 1.33 per cent on the bottom and 1.84 on the 

 top, while the careless packs show 6.73 per cent on the bottom and 

 12.10 per cent on the top. or nearly double. These differences are main- 

 tained throughout the time the fruit was held, and the rate of increase 

 in the careless packs is very much greater than in the carefully packed 

 crates. These figures were obtained from ordinary crates selected at 

 random from the commercial shipments, and show conclusively the wide 

 variation between good and poor work. When these figures were first 

 shown to one of the shippers at Lodi he at once implored us not to 

 emphasize the difference between the bottom and top tiers too strongly, 

 as he stated he was already having difficulty with some growers who 

 objected to having their fruit placed on the top tiers. The best way 

 to overcome this objection would be to get all the growers into the 

 careful class and then the difference between bottom and top will be 

 reduced to a minimum. 



TABLE 5. 



Percentages of Decay in Commercial Crates of Tokay Grapes Packed by Careful and Care- 

 less Packers. Shipments from Lodi to New York, 1909. 





Commercial Crates 

 by Careful Packers. 



Commercial Crates 

 by Careless Packers. 



Bottom 

 Tier. 



Top Tier. 



Bottom 

 Tier. 



Top Tier. 



On arrival. . 



1.33 

 2.21 

 4.33 

 7.33 



1.84 

 4.83 

 7.05 



9.33 



6.73 

 10.48 

 14.25 

 25.18 



12.10 

 17.28 

 28.93 

 35.15 



Three days after arrival _ 



Five days after arrival. _ __. . _ 



Seven days after arrival - . . - 



