FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
83 
the citrus crop with the least amount of 
loss in transit. 
THE CAUSE OF DECAY. 
The decay which causes practically all 
the wasty arrivals is produced by the 
growth of a common blue mold fungus, a 
low form of plant life. The spores which 
form the blue covering on the surface of a 
rotten orange act as the seed for the repro¬ 
duction of this plant. These are ever 
present, the dust of the air is laden with 
them, and each orange doubtless has many 
of them on its surface. Before decay 
takes place, three things seem to be neces¬ 
sary, as they are necessary for the growth 
of any plant, a soil in which to grow, heat 
and moisture. 
One of the characteristics of the blue 
mold fungus is that it seldom if ever lives 
on living tissue. A perfectly healthy un¬ 
injured orange on the tree is seldom seen 
decaying. When the fruit is picked the 
life of the orange does not stop immedi¬ 
ately, the cells continue active for some 
time after. It should, therefore, be im¬ 
possible for the fruit tO’ decay soon after 
harvesting, and from experiments we see 
that a perfectly sound orange may be 
covered with these spores and held in a 
warm, moist room and yet no decay takes 
place. But once bruise the fruit or injure 
its skin, thus killing some of the cells, and 
one of the conditions for the growth of 
this decay fungus has been supplied; it 
has proper soil conditions. If you place 
this injured orange on your desk in a 
very dry place, or put in a very cold room, 
it probably will not rot, but pack it in a 
box, wrapped in paper, so that any mois¬ 
ture there may be retained, and then place 
the box in a warm, moist spot and the 
decay will be very rapid. 
With this understanding of the nature 
and cause of the common decay, it be¬ 
comes easier to see how the harvesting 
methods might have an important bearing 
on the keeping quality of the fruit. If 
the methods are such as to injure it by 
bruising or cutting the skin, then we 
would lookdEpr decay, and in turn carelul 
methods should give sound fruit. 
THORN PUNCTURING. 
Starting our investigations with the 
fruit as it hangs upon the tree, some in¬ 
jury has been done already by thorn punc¬ 
turing and branch injury. In seedling or¬ 
chards this damage at times may run quite 
high, and after a period of warm, moist 
weather, decaying fruit may be found 
on the tree. Close inspection of some of 
these in the early stage of the rot will 
generally show that the decay is begin¬ 
ning around some sort of a mechanical 
injury, although it may be so small that 
it is scarcely seen without the aid of a 
hand lens. This class of injury is in¬ 
creased by the method of picking, namely 
in the setting the ladder, by the picker 
pulling the branches about, and by his 
hitting the fruit against the thorns. In 
examining fruit from the same tree, 
picked by different men, it is common to 
find in one box five or six fresh thorn 
bruises, while in another not one is seen. 
A small number of counts made so far 
indicate that about 6.6 per cent, were 
thorn or tree injured. This varies from, 
one to 22 per cent. Lots with 5 per cent., 
3.9 per cent., 6.6 per cent, and 6.8 per 
cent, were found. 
CLIPPER CUTTING. 
Enormous damage may be done by 
puncturing the fruit with the clippers in 
the act of picking. On the other hand, it 
