TRANSPORTATION OF CITRUS FRUIT FROM PORTO RICO 
ties. In some other parts of the island much of the fruit is not 
cultivated, but is grown as shade or windbreaks in connection with 
other crops. This fruit is usually not handled so carefully or packed 
so well as the cultivated fruit. The experimental work recorded here 
was confined largely to cultivated fruit. 
Citrus fruit from all localities in Porto Rico is more or less af- 
fected with stem-end rot caused by Diplodia natalensis, according 
to determinations made by the Office of Fruit-Disease Investigations. 
Mann 7 has shown that the fruit does not carry well under ventila- 
tion. As the disease men- 
tioned can be controlled to 
a considerable extent by 
keeping the fruit at low tem- 
peratures, it would seem to # 
make refrigeration almost 
an essential in the trans- 
portation of citrus fruit 
from Porto Rico. 
TAKING THE FRUIT 
THE SHIP 
ON 
In these experiments the 
fruit was in some cases 
loaded directly from piers 
into the ship; in others, it- 
was necessary to lighter it to 
the ship's side ; then to lower 
it into the hold through the 
hatches or pass it in through 
ports in the ship's side. 
When loading directly from 
the pier through the side 
ports the fruit was either 
trucked or carried into the 
hold ; in loading through the 
hatches the ship's tackle and 
slings were used. The par- 
ticular sling employed in 
this work is known as the 
"aeroplane" sling (fig. 2). 
It consists of a rectangular platform fitted with ropes, which pass 
through each corner and through rings in the ends of the spreaders 
to the hook on the block of the up-and-down fall. The spreaders are 
pieces of 6-inch angle iron the length of a box of fruit, placed over 
the corners of the top box to take the lateral strain of the ropes, thus 
preventing them from cutting into the boxes when the sling is lifted 
into the air. The sling is also equipped with a net, extending from 
the spreaders to the floor of the platform. The aeroplane sling is a very 
good type for citrus fruit, as there is little danger of chafing or 
7 Mann, C. W. The handling of Porto Rican oranges, grapefruit, and pineapples. 
Porto Rico Insular Exp. Sta. Bui. 7, 59 p., 24 fig. 1914. 
Fig. 2. 
-Sling used in loading citrus fruit and 
pineapples in Porto Rico 
