26 
BULLETIN 601, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
cause but little serious loss. The nonprecooled celery, on the other 
hand, showed considerable bad soft-rot and complete soft-rot. At 
the end of a 2-weeks' storage period the precooled showed less than 
one-half of 1 per cent of bad soft-rot in contrast to 2.2 per cent in the 
nonprecooled celery. Two weeks later there was still five times as 
much bad soft-rot in the nonprecooled as in the precooled. At the 
end of two weeks in storage the precooled celery showed 0.5 per cent 
and the nonprecooled 1.0 per cent of complete decay. At the last 
inspection the precooled celery showed 0.2 per cent and the non- 
precooled 4.8 per cent, or at the end of the storage periods there was 
twenty times as much worthless celery in the nonprecooled as in the 
precooled lots. The slight inconsistency between the amount of 
complete decay at the end of two and four weeks is doubtless due to 
the comparatively small number of crates used in the experiment. 
The celery was discarded after the first inspection and a different lot 
of crates used in the final inspection. 
Table XI. — Percentages of slight, bad. and complete soft-rot in the storage of precooled 
and nonprecooled celery skipped from Florida. 1915.. 
Disease. 
Stored two weeks. 
Stored four weeks. 
Pre- Nonpre- 
cooled. cooled. 
Pre- Nonpre- 
cooled. , cooled. 
Slight soft-rot 
Bad soft -rot 
per cent.. 
do.... 
do 
o. 9 10. 2 
.4 2.2 
.5 1 
13.3 
1.2 
2 
21.2 
.1.9 
4 S 
The percentages in figure 18 clearly show the possibility of storing 
late Florida celery on the market from two to four weeks, especially 
if it has been precooled. Xonprecooled celery may reach the market 
in salable condition, but at this season of the year its storage is likely 
to be attended by serious loss, due to decay and to its decreased 
attractiveness. The practical applications of this may be found in 
storing celery at periods when prices are low or the market is tem- 
porarily overstocked. Celery then may be stored and held for a 
better price. A glance at the market reports will show how celery 
fluctuates at this season of the year, owing to weather conditions and 
the shipments from other sections. Toward the end of the shipping 
season, the storage of celery may help to bridge the interval between 
the close of the Florida shipping season and the opening of the 
season in the northern fields. However, this is done largely by ship- 
ments of celery from Bermuda. 
Figure 19 shows the difference in the amount of decay that develops 
in celery carried on the floor of the car and that carried on the top 
tier. This is due, as previously suggested, to the much higher tem- 
perature in the top of the car. The difference applies to the pre- 
