HANDLING AND SHIPPING FKESH CHERRIES AND PRUNES. 17 
IMPORTANCE OF CAREFUL HANDLING AND GRADING. 
An average of all the tests made during the season of 1911 indicates 
the urgent necessity of improvement in field and packing-house 
handling. Every precaution should be exercised in picking, hauling, 
packing, and all harvesting operations to avoid bruising or me- 
chanical injury of any kind. In picking, the fruit should be grasped 
by the stem and placed by hand in a bucket or picking receptacle 
and should be handled in such a way as to disturb the bloom as little 
as possible. What has been said regarding cherries will hold equally 
true for prunes. Every precaution should be taken to transfer the 
fruit from the bucket to the lug box without allowing the fruit to 
drop or roll violently any distance or to rub off any more bloom than 
is consistent with the handling that has to be given it. Oftentimes 
it is the practice in the Willamette Valley to pick only the lower 
branches of the trees, leaving the fruit in the upper branches for 
drying or evaporation. In such cases it is sometimes possible to pick, 
at least for a portion of the time, directly into the lug box. Even 
if this extra care takes a little more time it is entirely practicable, 
and in minimizing the injury and consequent decay the slight added 
cost of handling is more than compensated for. 
The fruit should be kept in the shade while in the orchard after 
picking and should be hauled to the packing house on wagons 
equipped with good springs. The load should also be covered with 
canvas or some other covering to protect it from the sun and dust. 
In packing, much bruising and injury can be avoided by sorting and 
packing directly from the lug box instead of pouring the fruit out in 
bins or on tables, as is oftentimes the practice. The preservation of 
the bloom is a very important factor in the marketing of fresh 
prunes. When the prunes are poured into bins or on tables, much 
of the bloom is rubbed off that could be preserved if the fruit were 
packed and sorted directly from the lug box. 
It is certain that if fresh-prune shipping is to become a profitable 
and established phase of the marketing of this crop in the Willa- 
mette Valley, much greater care must be devoted to the handling and 
grading of the fruit. Not only should care be exercised to avoid 
mechanical injuries of every kind, but closer grading is absolutely 
necessary, in order that the fruit may at least leave the packing house 
in good, sound condition. Usually insufficient care is exercised in 
grading and in sorting out injured, soft, and cull fruit. This failure 
to grade and cull closely is partially responsible for the fact that 
occasionally the fruit shows some decay and deterioration prior to 
shipment. Brown-rot is also a considerable factor, and the decay 
data for both seasons include that caused by brown-rot, as it was 
quite impossible to separate this from other forms at all times. 
