THE KEEPING QUALITY OF CRANBERRIES. 9 
since the marsh has considerable acreages of a single variety, water- 
raking is regularly practiced, and both barrels and half-barrel boxes 
were available for the shipping tests. In all, 21 experimental lots, 
including 76 boxes and barrels, were prepared, shipped to three 
different markets, and examined at intervals from October 30, 1920, 
to February 3, 1921. The results of these experiments are sum- 
marized in Tables V and VI. 
TaBLe V.—Average keeping quality of cranberries (Searls variety) harvested in various 
ways. 
Spoiled berries (per cent). 
Water-raked. 
Date examined. 
Hand- | Dry- ‘ 
picked. | raked. | Dried Bane 
Sept.’ |’ 95 to 
1ee: NOctet 
SON EIT OFS) an A Lae ar a t  C  U 5.0 2 4.8 10. 6 
INowember 22-24 419203 a. 5 Ses. eee re ca. eek chee th eet ad 8.3 3 8.4 17.0 
TD NSO EH | OES ind Le Ig es pest eee TPR OS So NERS RIES CH LOS Qe Reese 1G 0} eee 
January 4) 1920s no... eet = sec p tt ie yeep) pee h -\43-- ee Bg (bo Sele 8 1G.) SE SSR EG: 
The figures given in Table V ? are in all cases the averages of sey- 
eral lots and include among the water-raked cranberries only those 
which were dried as promptly as possible under the prevailing 
weather conditions. The results indicate clearly the importance of .- 
prompt drying. The water-raked berries dried during the very 
favorable weather of September 14 to 17 showed practically the same 
keeping quality as the hand-picked berries, though not so good as the 
dry-raked fruit, while those harvested during the less favorable 
weather were distinctly inferior. 
The effect of rapid drying is shown in still another way. Ten tests 
were made in which several boxes of water-raked berries were sep- 
arated into two lots, one lot being carefully placed in the drying 
crates so as to permit rapid drying, while the other lot was put in the 
drying crates rather carelessly, the crates being filled about half full 
and the berries not separated in the middle of the crate. When the 
various lots were examined early in November the carelessly dried 
berries showed 14 per cent more rotten berries than those well dried. 
This difference (9.6 per cent of the total carelessly dried berries as 
compared with 8.4 per cent of the carefully dried berries) amounted 
2 The superior keeping quality of the dry-raked cranberries, as compared with the hand-picked berries, 
is probably due, at least in part, to the slight bruising which berries often suffer in hand-picking. The 
importance of these slight bruises has been shown in other experiments (9, p. 13), and large berries seem to 
be more easily injured by hand-picking than smaller ones, as was shown by comparative tests of hand- 
picking and dry-raking made in New Jersey in 1916, on the Early Black, Howe, and Centennial varieties. 
In almost all tests dry-raked cranberries have kept somewhat better than those hand-picked (9, p. 14, and 
5, p. 198). On the other hand, in dry-raking, a considerable number of berries are lost. 
