HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. 
11 
harmful effect on lettuce, and, in fact the exclusion of air from the 
center of the packages may result in a more rapid deterioration than 
is the case when the heads are removed from the hampers and exposed 
to the air. 
Table III. — Average market condition of sixteen experimental lots of carefully cut and com- 
mercially cut lettuce held six days in an iced car at Palmetto, Fla., during the season of 
1913-14. 
At withdrawal. 
Three days after withdrawal. 
Treatment. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Repacked. 
Undisturbed. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Nonprecooled: 
Prime heads /per cent. . 
Marketable heads do 
Precooled: 
Prime heads do 
Marketable heads do 
90 
100 
98.4 
100 
40.1 
93.3 
70.9 
99.5 
32.2 
87.3 
65.6 
90 
3.4 
51.3 
15.8 
75.6 
31.8 
81.5 
53.8 
94.3 
4.1 
49.5 
9.4 
63.4 
The summary of the holding experiments shown in Table III is 
even more striking than the summary of the shipping lots shown in 
Table I. The effect on the carrying quality of the lettuce of the 
different methods of handling employed was relatively the same in 
PRECOOLED N0N PRECOOLED 
AFTER SIX DAYS IN ICED CAR 
PER CENT DECAY 
90 8o 70 60 50 40 30 2c 
PER CENT DECAY 
11.6 CAREFUL I0 0BB 
111111111)11111285 COMMERCIAL 5A7 IIII III I II II IIIIIIIIHI I IHHI 
THREE DAYS AFTER WITHDRAWAL (repacked lots) 
EUUUHUI25.7 CAREFUL 52.61 
milllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 76.3fnMMFRriAIQ4ft mTTmilllllllllllllllll h l M I MI I I I I I II I I I I } 
Fig. 9.— Diagram illustrating the percentages of drop decay upon withdrawal from the car and three days 
later in precooled and in nonprecooled commercially cut and carefully cut lettuce held at Palmetto, 
Fla., season of 1913-14. 
both lots, but there was considerably more deterioration in the lots 
held at Palmetto, owing to the prevailing higher temperature. Here, 
again, the effect of careful cutting is shown most markedly. Over 
98 per cent of the carefully cut precooled lettuce was in prime con- 
dition at the end of six days, as compared with less than 71 per 
cent in that commercially cut. In the nonprecooled lots the care- 
fully cut lettuce showed an average of 90 per cent of prime heads 
