DISEASES OF APPLES ON THE MARKET. 3 
TABULATION OF DATA. 
Data from the certificates issued on cars showing disease have 
been considered under two main heads, depending on whether they 
relate to cars from the West or Northwest (the box crop) or to cars 
from the Middle West or the East (the barrel crop) . Within each of 
these two groups the data have been tabulated according to the 
various diseases, by years, months, varieties, States, and inspection 
offices. • The tabulation, or analysis, is thus based solely on the 
certificate statements, which give the date and place of inspection, 
the variety inspected, the kind of shipment (box, barrel, or bulk), 
the place of origin of the shipment, and the condition of the fruit, 
including the amount and kind of disease found by the inspector. 
Such an analysis makes possible several interesting comparisons, and 
through them throws some light on the general question of what 
factors determine the keeping quality of apples ; it can not, however, 
give a definite and exhaustive answer to that question, since the 
complete history of the shipment is not known and can not be deduced 
from the certificate in any single instance. Nothing is known, con- 
cretely, for any given carload, about the conditions under which the 
apples were grown, how they were handled during the picking and 
packing process, and what kind of treatment they received in transit 
and in storage. It is possible to tell in a general way from the variety 
name and the date of the certificate about how much time had elapsed 
since the apples were picked and, for storage varieties, about how 
long they had been in storage. It is also allowable to assume for the 
box crop rather more careful grading and methods of handling than 
are in use for the barrel crop. But assumptions are not proof, and 
it is inadvisable to attempt proof when the data are inadequate. 
Consequently, the discussion which accompanies the tables (under 
"Analysis of data") is limited to pointing out what seem to be 
obvious facts and to suggesting in a few other places what the relation 
may be between the figures in the tables and the probable conditions 
under which the apples were grown and marketed. 
There is some chance for error in attempting to set a definite per- 
centage for a certain disease in a given carload on the basis of the 
certificate statement. That statement frequently gives a range (blue- 
mold rot ranging from 5 to 25 per cent, in most boxes 10 to 15 per cent) 
rather than a single average percentage and for strict accuracy should 
be interpreted by the inspector who wrote it. The arbitrary fixing 
of such a percentage by anyone else for use in tabulations can be jus- 
tified, however, on the following grounds: 
1. In the settlement of controversies over the condition of apple 
shipments, financially interested parties make frequent and mutually 
satisfactory use of such a percentage, deduced from the certificate 
statement. That is, they find it accurate and reliable for the settle- 
ment of deals in which money is involved. 
2. Four years' experience in the making of apple inspections has shown 
that apples run more uniform throughout the load than do other 
perishable products, excepting possibly citrus fruit. Consequently, 
a percentage based on the examination of 10 or 12 boxes or. barrels 
can be taken as approximately the true one for the whole carload. 
3. As pointed out above, the certificate statements furnish more 
information about the condition of apples arriving on the market than 
is now available from any other source. 
