FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
115 
eration. When these experiments were 
undertaken we believed russet fruit was 
a better shipper than bright and we ap¬ 
proached the subject to a certain extent 
in favor of the russet. The results are 
totally unexpected. 
Test i: Grapefruit: On January 30, 
24 brights and 24 russets were picked and 
placed in the laboratory. These were ex¬ 
amined from time to time and on April 7 
there were 46 2-3 per cent of the bright 
fruit had decayed and 58 1-3 per cent of 
the russets. The lot of bright fruit also 
lost 4 7-10 per cent in weight by evapora¬ 
tion, while the russets lost 13 6-10 per 
cent. 
Test 2 : 51 grapefruit each, of brights 
and russets, were picked on the same day 
as the preceding and placed in the labora¬ 
tory. On April 7, 49 per cent of the 
brights had decayed and 75 1-2 per cent of 
the russets. The bright lot had lost 5 9-10 
per cent in weight and the russet lot 91-2 
per cent. If these two tests are combined 
the results will be 46 2-3 per cent of the 
bright fruit had decayed and 706-10 per 
cent of the russets. The bright lot lost 
51-2 per cent in weight and the russet lot 
lost 108-10 per cent. 
Test 3: Oranges: One box of bright 
oranges and one box of russet oranges 
each containing 200 fruits were purchased 
at the packing house March 9. These 
fruits were picked from the same grove. 
On April 7 the bright oranges showed 
48 1-2 per cent decay, while the russet 
oranges showed 59 per cent. The loss of 
weight by evaporation was about the same 
in both instances. 
Test 4: One box of brights and one 
box of russets containing 160 oranges 
each were placed away March 9. On 
April 7, 29 3-10 per cent of the bright had 
rotted and 30 6-10 per cent of the russets. 
The loss by weight was 104-10 per cent 
for the bright fruit and about 15 per cent 
for the russet. 
Test 5 : One box each of brights and 
russets containing 150 oranges each were 
placed away March 3. On April 7, 50 per 
cent of the bright fruit had decayed and 
66 per cent of the russet. The brights 
lost 14 8-10 per cent by evaporation and 
the russets 179-10 per cent. 
Test 6: One half box each of brights 
and russets were placed away March 3. 
On April 7, 54 per cent of the brights had 
rotted and 74 per cent of the russets. The 
bright fruit lost 17 4-10 per cent by evap¬ 
oration and the russets 21 per cent. 
It will be noticed that in every instance 
the russet fruit showed a greater percent¬ 
age of decay than the bright fruit. The 
percentage of evaporation was also great¬ 
er in every instance except one and in this 
case the percentages were about equal. It 
is very difficult for the reasonable mind to 
understand how it is possible for fruit, 
the skin of which has been attacked by 
millions of little creatures which have 
withdrawn many of the substances in the 
rind which nature intended to preserve 
the fruit from the elements, could possess 
better shipping qualities than fruit which 
is normal in appearance and whose skin 
contains all the elements that nature in¬ 
tended for the preservation of the fruit. 
In regard to the relative sizes of bright 
and russet fruit, there are very few pack¬ 
ers that have not observed that the russet 
orange is somewhat smaller than the 
bright orange. Several people have made 
