86 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tained 20.1 per cent, was in the drop of 
18 inches. How much of the 22.9 per cent, 
waste in the house pack may be attributed 
to a similar cause, we will leave to you to 
judge, who know something about the 
amount of rough handling a box of fruit 
ordinarily receives. 
SUMMARY. 
It does not seem best at the present 
time to make any very definite recommen¬ 
dations. I should like to present, how¬ 
ever, the following questions for your 
consideration. 
Is there not an immense amount of 
rough hanidling in your orange groves 
and packing houses? 
Is it not reasonable to expect, and do 
the experiments not indicate, that the in¬ 
jured and dropped fruit has been made 
susceptible to decay? 
Other conditions, such as the amount of 
moisture and heat at the time of packing, 
the length of delay in shipping, the time 
in transit and the character of the weather 
encountered, all have their bearing. But 
as a preliminary consideration, is it not 
more than probable that the packing meth¬ 
ods have much to do with the keeping 
quality of citrus fruits ? 
DISCUSSION. 
Member.—What is the character of 
the land? High pine land fruit? 
Mr. Tenney—^All kinds. This is 
one of the things of which more defi¬ 
nite notice will be taken another year. 
We did not find a great deal of differ¬ 
ence in the results where the experi¬ 
ments were made with high pine land 
or hammock land fruit. There were, 
however, striking differences in indi¬ 
vidual lots of fruit. 
Mr. Hart.—A question I have in 
mind is whether, if that fruit was kept 
a little while and cured and softened 
up, it would not have gone through 
with less percentage of rot. When an 
orange is just off the tree and rigid, 
the drop would injure it considerably 
more than after it had been off the 
tree for 24 or 36 hours, and that brings 
up the matter of whether curing is de¬ 
sirable or not before shipping. 
Mr. Tenny.—Oranges that have 
been picked some time will probably 
not be injured as much by dropping as 
those that are freshly picked. The 
difficulty, however, lies in the fact that 
a large proportion of the damage is 
done in the picking, hence curing some 
time after picking will not remedy the 
trouble. Under your present harvest¬ 
ing system, the trouble is in getting 
your fruit into the packing house. 
There is little doubt that an orange 
that is cured will stand a drop better 
than one that is just picked and conse¬ 
quently hard. 
Mr. Hart.—Then another important 
point is that where fruit is shipped in 
small quantities, it is loaded largely 
by the freight handlers, and it is not 
unusual for them to shoulder the box 
and give it a shove and let it go. Now, 
if we had cured the fruit, I think it 
would have been injured less than 
when packed immediately from the 
tree and crowded into boxes. 
Mr. Tenny—The matter of delaying 
the shipment will be taken up before 
our work is finished. I could give you 
some of the results from the California 
end, but do not feel justified in doing 
that, because the same conditions 
might not hold good here in Florida. 
Mr. Hart—In putting on the cov¬ 
ers of the boxes considerable injury 
might be done, while, if partly cured. 
