14 BULLETIN 1367, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
as from fruit at the lower temperatures after 24 to 36 hours in the 
coloring room. It has been shown by Winston and others® that 
stem-end rot, so prevalent in Florida fruit, can be controlled by 
removing the buttons soon after harvesting. The work of these men 
has been corroborated by the writers in a number of experiments, 
and there seems to be no question that this disease can be controlled 
to a considerable extent by the removal of the buttons. It is there- 
fore advisable in processing or coloring citrus fruit liable to be 
affected by stem-end rot that efforts be made to loosen the buttons 
during coloring. Where fruit is not affected by this disease it is of 
course possible that the packer may wish to keep the buttons on the 
fruit, which can readily be accomplished by lower temperatures and 
a slightly lower humidity in the coloring room. 
The most convenient location for the coloring rooms is in the 
packing house or in a building directly connected with it. It is 
frequently possible to partition off a space near the washer, next to. 
PACKING HOUSE FLOOR 
of . 
se ake 16-0" . 1S5*~ O* ae 6-0 
80-O* 
p---- /G6tO07---- -~---/6- O* -- --k----- /6+0°------%e- --- -/5*+ 07 ---- e- -- - 1 6- a > 
* --------------—------~--~--~---- —- --80-0*- —--~-—~--~~---~——~-~~-——~~~--— = 
PECEIVING PLATFORM 
Fic. 7.—Diagram of floor plan, showing the arrangement of the coloring rooms 
in connection with the packing house 
THE COLORING PLANT 
LOCATION AND ARRANGEMENT 
the receiving platform, so that the fruit can be trucked directly into 
the coloring rooms as it is unloaded and then trucked out to the 
washer after coloring. This is an economical arrangement in that it 
,eliminates much unnecessary handling or trucking, and fruit can be 
stored in the coloring rooms during that part of the season when it 
is not necessary to color with gas. A sketch of this arrangement 
of the coloring rooms is shown as Figure 7. 
Another plan, and one which has been followed to some extent in 
Florida, is to construct the rooms on either side of a corridor, one 
end of which opens into the packing house, the other on a receiving 
platform. This plan necessitates somewhat more trucking in 
handling the fruit in and out of the rooms than the plan just dis- 
cussed, but is a convenient type of construction where more rooms 
are needed than can be accommodated in one tier along the end or 
side of the packing house. A plan of such an arrangement is shown 
as Figure 8. 
6° J. R. Winston, H. R. Fulton, and J. J. Bowman. Op. cit. 
