16 BULLETIN 274, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
of mold fungi, it is essential that the berries be promptly and 
quickly cooled after picking. The picked berries lose much of their 
hfe by standing in the sun after picking and by delay in getting 
them into a refrigerator car. The necessity of prompt and quick 
cooling will be more fully discussed later, 
OTHER INJURIES. 
Considerable injury also occurs in hauling over rough roads or 
on springless wagons and in rough, careless handling to and from 
the wagon in such a way that the berries roll around in the cups, 
becoming injured, mashed, and broken. The same applies to han- 
dling in the car or in pony refrigerators. A pony refrigerator (fig. 
16), when being loaded into an express car, is often tilted at such an 
angle and so violently jolted that berries are badly mashed and in- 
jured by rolling around in the cups. Much greater care could easily 
Fic. 15.—Inspecting red raspberries on the platform at Puyallup, Wash., before loading 
them into a refrigerator car. 
be exercised even in such a hurry-up job as loading express shipments. 
Rough, uneven loading platforms are also the cause of considerable 
injury as the fruit is trucked to the car. 
FREQUENCY OF PICKING. 
It is customary to pick a patch over once a day, although patches 
are frequently left two or three days. The pickings should be made 
sufficiently close together to avoid having any considerable propor- 
tion of overripe berries. Overripe berries are usually sent to the 
cannery, but a lot of such berries in a patch makes it extremely dif_i- 
cult to obtain good and proper sorting, the result being that a great 
many good shipping berries with a few overripe ones in them are 
sent to the cannery or else are shipped, with the inevitable decay and 
poor returns as a result. 
