BERRIES AND CHERRIES BY PARCEL POST. 
3 
giowers who cooperated in making the experimental shipments fol- 
lowed these instructions, but a few who had berries of extra size and 
quality and were vitally interested in the success of the experiment 
asked and were given permission to use special care in handling their 
shipments. Not enough of these special shipments were made to 
} warrant conclusions, but the results secured indicate that uncertain 
weather conditions and possibilities of careless handling while in 
transit may tend to discourage the use of the parcel post for shipping 
the highest grade of fancy select berries, which require special care 
throughout the marketing process. 
Because of heavy rains and hot weather during a large part of the 
strawberry shipping seasons of 1916 and 1917, conditions were 
unfavorable for shipping berries without refrigeration. However, 
shipments of strawberries were made by parcel post during the entire 
Fig. 1.— One 24-quart crate and one 16-quart crate of strawberries shipped by parcel post. 
shipping seasons, as it was desired to make experimental shipments 
under varying conditions. 
A large number of crates of berries were received in poor condi- 
tion because of unfavorable weather conditions and delay in delivery. 
However, when the weather conditions were favorable, the berries 
that had been picked and packed property arrived in good merchant- 
able condition. Figure 1 shows two shipments of strawberries 
that were made under favorable conditions. 
In 1915 a total of 118 crates of strawberries were received by parcel 
post, the fruit in all except 18 of these crates being received in good 
condition. 
In 1916 over one-half of the shipments arrived in unsatisfactory 
condition, chiefly because of unfavorable weather conditions. The 
shipping season was marked by heavy rains, followed by hot, clear 
days, which caused the berries to soften and scald and made it difficult 
to ship them satisfactorily even under refrigeration. 
