HANDLING AND SHIPPING FKESH CHERRIES AND PRUNES. 27 
SUMMARY OF THE PRUNE INVESTIGATIONS. 
Prune growing is the principal horticultural industry in the section 
around Salem and in other districts of the Willamette Valley, Oreg. 
The entire product normally is evaporated. 
If a portion of the crop could be successfully shipped in a fresh 
state it would be of distinct advantage, at least during certain seasons, 
in that it would furnish an additional outlet for the profitable dis- 
posal of the crop. If prunes could be successfully and profitably 
shipped in a fresh state it would stabilize the industry greatly and 
permit its further profitable development in this and other sections 
well adapted to prune growing. 
Numerous attempts have been made to ship prunes fresh, but with 
rather indifferent success. These investigations, undertaken pri- 
marily to determine the practicability of fresh-prune shipment, in- 
dicate that by the exercise of proper care in harvesting and proper 
orchard-sanitation practices prunes can be successfully shipped in a 
fresh state to markets at least as far east as Chicago. 
As with cherries, success in fresh-prune shipping is dependent 
upon the elimination of the decay occurring in transit and after 
arrival on the market, this decaj^ being due either to mechanical 
abrasions or injuries in handling or to brown-rot with which the 
fruit has become infected before being removed from the trees. 
The results, both commercial and experimental, indicate that unless 
a radical improvement is made in the methods of handling as well as 
in orchard-sanitation practices, entire dependence will have to con- 
tinue to be placed on evaporation for the disposal of this crop. 
Prunes can be picked, hauled, and packed with comparatively little 
injury and resultant decay, provided the utmost care in picking is 
exercised to avoid bruising the fruit in placing it in the pail, in trans- 
ferring it to the orchard box, and in hauling it to the packing house. 
The preservation of the bloom is also a very important considera- 
tion, and this goes hand in hand Avith care in handling to avoid in- 
juries. 
The fruits should be grasped by the pedicel and laid one at a time 
in the picking pail or bucket. The common practice of holding sev- 
eral prunes in the hand while picking results in rubbing off the 
bloom and in considerable bruising and injury, as does the equally 
common practice of dropping the fruit into either the picking bucket 
or field box. 
In transferring the fruit to the field box the utmost care should 
be taken to prevent dropping or violent rolling, both with a view to 
preventing injury and bruising and to preserving the bloom. 
The fruit should be kept in the shade while in the orchard and 
hauled to the packing house on wagons provided with good springs. 
