36 



carry large cargoes of raw sugar. Until regular fruit vessels are 

 built, we must make the most of the means at hand. To do this all 

 must work in cooperation. It is not a case for individual action, but 

 for associations. By all acting in harmony better terms may be 

 obtained from the steamship companies. Any definite, practical, 

 necessary convenience will be more easily obtained when demanded 

 by the growers as a body than by individuals. 



The system of insjDection at the dock is already having good effect, 

 but much should still be done. The chief points to be emphasized 

 are ventilation, care in handling, and care in placing in the hold. 

 These are all only indirectly in the hands of the growers and packers, 

 but should receive their careful attention. If derricks are used to load 

 on boat, the platform system should be demanded. Special care 

 should be taken to see that the stevedores do not handle the boxes 

 roughly. 



When placed in the hold the boxes should not rest directly upon one 

 another nor close together, but slats one-haK to 1 inch thick should 

 be tacked across the ends. Air spaces should be left between the 

 tiers, thus preventing the crushing of the fruit by jamming and per- 

 mitting the free and thorough circulation of air about each box. 



CANNING. 



The canning industry is increasing in Porto Rico. For several 

 years a single factory was run a few months each year during the 

 main crop of Cabezonas. Now canning factories are being built 

 wherever many pines are grown. The natural development for the 

 future is for each neighborhood to have a factory, either cooperative 

 or private. Such a factory can utilize the second-grade and blem- 

 ished fruits, or, what is more important, take care of the fruit when 

 prices are low, or when, because of soil, fertilizer, or climatic con- 

 ditions, the fruit does not carry well. 



Machinery for handling the fruit in a canning factory has been 

 so perfected and simplified that these neighborhood canneries are 

 entirely practicable. Aside from the pineapple the canneries could 

 utilize many of the citrus and other native fruits, thus enlarging the 

 field of operation and benefiting the island by developing more diver- 

 sified fruit raising. Xot only could these neighborhood canneries take 

 up the canning of other fruits, but they could put in. at a small ex- 

 pense, an extractor and make ciders and denatured alcohol from the 

 fruit not fit to can, thus decreasing the waste and increasing the 

 revenues to the growers. Such work is beyond the experimental 

 stage in other countries, and we should not lag behind in a work of 

 such importance. 



