16 
BULLETIN 714, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Table IX.- 
-Increase in amount of rot due to separating or sorting cranberries, 
as sJwivn by tests made at Whitesbog, N. J., in 1917. 
Conditions of test. 
Eesults noted (per cent). 
Rotten 
Sept. 21 
(1 week 
after 
picking). 
Total 
rotten on 
Oct. 31 
(after 6 
weeks in 
storage). 
Rot 
developed 
in storage. 
Increase 
of storage 
rot due to 
previous 
handling. 
Berries of good keeping quality (sprayed): 
Hand sorted before storage 
Separated and sorted before storage 
Not handled before storage 
Berries of poor keeping quality (unsprayed): 
Hand sorted before storage 
Separated and sorted before storage 
Not handled before storage 
5.9 
5.7 
3.9 
30.4 
28.3 
1.2 
4.1 
2.3 
6.7 
1.0 
7.8 
5.7 
Table IX shows that even with berries of excellent keeping quality 
the amount of decay developed in storage was nearly doubled by a 
previous sorting either by hand or by machine and that the effect of 
hand sorting was at least as severe as that of machine separating. 
On berries of potentially poor keeping quality the effect was similar 
but very much more marked. It appears that these berries did not 
decay in storage any faster than the sprayed berries unless the} 7 had 
been bruised previously by sorting, but that when so bruised the rot 
developed rapidly and in large amount, Here, again, hand sorting 
alone proved slightly more injurious than separating by machine. 
This experiment indicates that the berries should be handled as 
little as possible and as late as possible before disposal, especially in 
the case of fruit of bad or doubtful keeping quality. 
As another example of the increase in the amount of decay which 
is caused by hand sorting, the results of a test made at Wareham, 
Mass., in the fall of 1917 may be cited. Ten bushel boxes of Early 
Black cranberries were scooped on September 12 in such a way that 
two boxes came from each of five different regions of the bog. the 
two boxes from each region being as nearly alike as possible. All 
the berries were stored with abundant ventilation at a temperature 
which varied from 15° to 5° C. (59° to 41° F.) as the season ad- 
vanced. Five boxes, one of each pair, were carefully hand sorted on 
October 3 and the good berries replaced in the boxes and held until 
November 6, when all the berries were sorted. The results, sum- 
marized in Table X, indicate that the sorting on October 3 more than 
doubled the amount of rot during the following month. 
