12 BULLETIN 714, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
is kept at a higher temperature and in which the sorters work. 
With such a system, using belts 30 feet long, no berry is exposed to 
warm air for more than 1 minute and the air in which the berries 
are packed is as cool as that in which they were stored. Careful 
temperature tests made in such a sorting house in Massachusetts 
showed that with the temperature of the berries at 7° C. (45° F.) and 
that of the sorting room at 18° C. (65° F.), the temperature of the 
berries was raised not more than 1 degree centigrade in sorting. 
Ventilation- 
Adequate ventilation of the cranberry storehouse is necessary first 
of all as a means of lowering the temperature of the fruit as soon 
as possible after it is picked. Its importance is not by, any means 
confined to the effect on temperature, however, for, as pointed out 
earlier, improper ventilation results in smothering and sometimes in 
increased decay. In order to obtain the best results, cranberries 
should be stored in ventilated boxes which are so piled as to permit 
a free circulation of air among the berries. 
The same principle may well be extended to the packages in which 
cranberries are shipped, particularly for the early shipments, which 
are frequently made during very warm weather. In this connection, 
the writers carried on experiments during both 1916 and 1917, in 
which berries were shipped in containers of different types. The 
results of these experiments are summarized in Table VI. In general 
it may be stated that the fruit in the smaller, well-ventilated con- 
tainers kept better than that in the barrels. Of these containers the 
ventilated *half-barrel box is perhaps the most satisfactory. 
Ventilated barrels in which there are from 28 to 32 small openings 
(every other stave having two notches in each side) offer a convenient 
substitute for the tight barrel and one which may be introduced at 
slight expense and without the delay and effort incident to intro- 
ducing a new package to the trade. Such barrels are now in use for 
early shipments by at least one large grower. While the writers 
have as yet been unable to carry out satisfactory comparative tests 
of ventilated and tight barrels, in a simple shipment of Early Black 
cranberries from Massachusetts the berries in the ventilated barrels 
appeared drier than those in the tight barrels. It is hoped that next 
season it will be possible to make shipping tests of a size sufficient 
to settle the question as to the amount of advantage derived from 
using ventilated barrels. 
