HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. 
13 
than half of the heads showed drop decay. Three days after with- 
drawal from the car the precooled carefully handled lettuce showed 
only 25.7 per cent of drop-rot, whereas the precooled commercially 
handled lots showed 78.3 per cent. The nonprecooled commercially 
handled lettuce showed an average of 94.8 per cent of drop decay or ; 
in other words, at the final inspection of these lots practically every 
head was decayed more or less seriously. 
COMPARISON OF HOLDING AND SHIPPING LOTS. 
The differences in the amount of decay found in the experimental 
shipments of lettuce inspected at the northern markets and in cor- 
responding lots held in Palmetto are shown in Table V. 
Table V. — Comparison of the total percentages of decay in precooled and nonprecooled 
lots of carefully cut and commercially cut lettuce shipped to northern markets and in 
comparable lots held at Palmetto, Fla.. during the season of 1913-14- 
Treatment. 
At withdrawal. 
Carefully- 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Three days after 
withdrawal. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut 
Nonprecooled: 
7 holding lots : per cent. 
7 comparable shipments do. . . 
Precooled: 
7 holding lots do. . . 
7 comparable shipments do... 
28.1 
20.1 
55.9 
78.9 
30.6 
22.2 
10.4 
96.2 
53.2 
50.6 
15.5 
Table V shows that even at the first inspection the average decay 
was greater in the lettuce held in Florida than that in the lettuce 
shipped to northern markets, in spite of the fact that inspections at 
the North were made nearly two days later than those at Palmetto. 
At the second inspection the decay, as might be expected, was much 
greater in the lettuce held in Florida than in that held in the northern 
markets. This is undoubtedly accounted for by the difference in 
temperature between the two parts of the country during January 
and February, the months in which the experiments were carried on. 
OUTLINE OF EXPERIMENTS IN 1914-15. 
The experiments with lettuce, as outlined in 1913-14, were con- 
tinued throughout the season of 1914-15. The weather conditions 
during this season were generally unfavorable, resulting in a poor 
quality of lettuce and very light shipments. The lettuce as a rule 
failed to make solid heads, and that shipped from the Palmetto sec- 
tion was chiefly of the leaf type. For this reason it was impossible 
to conduct the experiments on as large a scale as was desired. How- 
ever, a number of cars were precooled, and experimental lots were 
again shipped to New York. 
