HANDLING LETTUCE AND CELERY. 
25 
by the diagram is the much smaller amount of soft-rot in the pre- 
cooled than in the nonprecooled lot. In the celery stored for two 
weeks there was an average of 7 per cent of soft-rot in the precooled 
and 19.6 per cent in the nonprecooled, nearly three times as much 
in the latter case. At the end of four weeks the soft-rot in the pre- 
cooled had more than doubled, but there was still twice as much in 
the nonprecooled celery. The amount of heart-rot also showed a 
consistent difference in favor of the precooled. The increase of 
PRECOOLED 
PER CEHT DECAY 
15 10 5 
SLIGHT SOFT-ROT 
STORED TWO WEEKS 
STORED FOUR WEEKS 
BAD SOFT-ROT 
STORED TWO WEEKS 
STORED FOUR WEEKS 
COMPLETE SOFT-ROT 
STORED TWO WEEKS 
STORED FOUR WEEKS 
NON PRECOOLED 
PER CENT DECAY 
5 10 15 20 
■■■ons.s 
■ 0.4 
2.2 ■■■ 
■ o.s 
B.S 1 1 illl 1 1 III 1 1 11 IIJJ.IAJUJ 
4HUIIIIIIIIHIIIIIIII 
Fig. 18.— Diagram illustrating the percentages of slight, bad, and complete soft-rot at the end of two weeks 
and at the end of four weeks in storage at 32° F. in both precooled and nonprecooled celery shipped from 
Manatee, Fla., to New York, season of 1915. 
heart-rot in the nonprecooled lots from 6.5 per cent at the end of 
two weeks to 13.4 per cent at the end of four weeks clearly shows 
that the trouble will develop in storage. 
Table X. — Average percentages of decay in storage of precooled and nonprecooled celery 
shipped from Florida, 1915. 
3. 
Stored two weeks. 
Stored four weeks. 
Diseas 
Pre- 
cooled. 
Nonpre- 
cooled. 
Pre- 
cooled. 
Nonpre- 
cooled. 
Soft-rot 
Heart-rot 
Total decay i 
: per cent. . 
do.... 
do.... 
7 
4.7 
10.8 
19.6 
6.5 
24 
15.3 
8.5 
22.7 
33.4 
13.4 
43.7 
1 In some cases both soft-rot and heart-rot were found in the same plant, but were recorded separately. 
Total decay refers to plants showing either or both forms. 
Table XI and figure 18 show the Various degrees of soft-rot at the 
different inspections. Celery was classified as having slight soft- 
rot if the decay was confined to not more than two or three stalks 
and bad soft-rot if the bunch showed considerable decay but still 
had a marketable " heart." " Complete soft-rot" was the term 
applied to the celery that was so badly decayed as to be rendered 
worthless. The diagram (fig. 18) shows that practically all the bad 
and complete soft-rot in the precooled celery was so slight as to 
