292 BULLETIN 274, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
WHAT CONSTITUTES CAREFUL HANDLING. 
In view of the superior carrying qualities of the carefully handled 
fruit and the marked advantage that its better market-holding prop- 
erties give it, it may well be asked, What constitutes careful han- 
dling’ This can best be answered by a description of the methods 
used in picking the specially and carefully handled lots. | 
Special care was taken to remove the berries from the bushes with- 
out breaking or crushing them and to place each berry in a cup 
immediately, in order to avoid mashing it in the hand. Bruising in 
picking can be avoided to a great extent by using three fingers on 
each berry instead of two. When only two fingers are used, the 
pressure is concentrated at two points on the berry, while the use of 
three fingers distributes the pressure more evenly and very greatly 
lessens the lability to injury, provided no more pressure than is 
necessary is used to separate the cap from the receptacle. Great 
care was exercised to 
place all overripe 
GROWER ial j 
canes . ; berries in separate 
cups and to put none 
aS but sound, unbroken, 
247 uninjured, and prop- 
284 erly matured berries 
2a into cups and crates 
476 : 
ee intended for long- 
413 distance shipment. 
200 Berries may be con- 
35 
sidered properly ma- 
tured as soon as they 
will slip off the core 
without breaking. 
; The frequency of 
in, 2 gee ueetay Oe renee ae die eee 
fruit obtained from various growers, this fruit being held factor in careful han- 
in an ordinary iced car for four days at Puyallup, Wash., : 
in the season of 1911. dling. Proper han- 
dling, as above de- 
scribed, is comparatively a simple matter where the pickings are made 
sufficiently close together to avoid having an undue proportion of 
overripe berries in the yard. If a grower gets behind in the pick- 
ing, careful handling is much more difficult of accomplishment, 
owing to the great quantity of “overripes.” The filled crates were 
hauled to the receiving station or car in spring wagons and covered 
with canvas to protect the fruit from the sun and dust. Previous 
tc loading, the crates containing the fruit were kept in the shade 
of a receiving shed and exposed as little as possible to the sun after 
removal from the vines. When loading on and unloading from the 
wagons and when placing in the car the crates were handled with 
all possible care, especial effort being made to keep them in a hori- 
zontal position and to prevent hard jolting in placing them on the 
platform or in the car. The too frequent practice of tipping crates 
early on end in loading cars results in considerable bruising, as the 
berries roll from side to side in the cups and against the division 
board and the cover. 
That the berries can be handled commercially with sufficient care 
to insure the desired keeping quality is not seriously questioned by 
