18 
BULLETIN 601, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
esting to compare Table IX with Table IV, which, records a con- 
siderably lower percentage of decay for the season of 1913-14. In 
some cases the average percentages of decay in 1914-15 were several 
times greater than in 1913-14. For example, the nonprecooled care- 
fully handled 'lettuce showed only 1.4 per cent of heads with bad 
drop-rot hi 1913-14, whereas the following year the comparable 
lot showed 12.3 per cent. 
Table IX. — Average percentages of decay in seven experimental lots of carefully cut. and 
commercially cut lettuce held six days in an iced car at Palmetto. Fla.. during the season 
of 1914-15. 
At withdrawal. 
Three days after withdrawal. 
Treatment. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Repacked. 
In disturbed. 
Carefully 
cut. 
Commer- 
cially cut. 
Carefully Commer- 
cut. * cially cut. 
Nonprecooled: 
Heads showing slight drop-rot, per 
37.5 
45.2 
42 
47.6 
40.3 
2 9 2 
71.2 
40.3 
40.9 
19.4 
Heads showing bad drop-rot. per cent. . 
Total drop-rot * do 
Heads showing bacterial rot do 
Preoooled: 
Heads showing slight drop-rot . .do 
Heads showing bad drop-rot do 
Total drop-rot l do 
Heads showing bacterial rot do 
12.3 
SO 
49.8 
87.2 
87.9 
93.4 
81. 2 : 99. 4 
.4 
5.1 
10.8 
15. S 
15 21.1 
17.8 
2 
40.7 
12.8 
6.7 
44.3 
47 
64.4 
8.3 
35.6 
45.2 
19.8 
53.5 
67.4 
91.3 
72. 7 80. S 
1.2 

5.2 
13.6 
13.8 
22.6 
1 In some cases both drop and bacterial decay were found on the same head. As these diseases were 
recorded separately the total of all forms of decay may appear to amount to more than 100 per cent in some 
instances. 
Ill spite of the naturally inferior quality of the lettuce hi 1914-15, 
the results of both the precooling and the handling work are very 
marked. The tables and diagrams will bear very close analysis, as 
they contain much more information than can be given in this brief 
discussion. 
CELERY-HANDLING INVESTIGATIONS. 
NATURE OF THE PROBLEM. 
The celery-handling investigations were conducted at Manatee and 
Palmetto, Fla., mainly during the spring of 1915. At this season 
of the 3 T ear high temperatures usually prevail in Florida and frequently 
occur throughout the North. When the celery is hauled from the 
fields to the car to be loaded, a temperature as high as 80° to 85° F. 
is by no means uncommon. The cars are loaded rapidly and the 
doors closed, confining all the heat within. It is manifestly impossible 
for the ice in the bunkers at either end of the car to reduce the heat 
to a safe temperature in as short a time as is desirable. As a matter 
of fact, the cooling that takes place in such a car is necessarily uneven 
