FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
205 
on the market as against 1.4 in the pre¬ 
cooled and iced. A discussion of these 
figures is hardly necessary, but in draw¬ 
ing conclusions from them, one should 
keep in mind the fact that the check lots 
were neither precooled nor iced. A 
number of comparable shipments of both 
precooled and non-precooled fruit was 
sent out without any ice whatever and the 
following table gives an average of 14 
shipments, precooled and non-precooled, 
shipped without ice. The difference be¬ 
tween precooled and non-precooled on 
ORANGE PRECOOLING AND HANDLING 
191 3-14 -AVERAGE OF 14 SHIPMENTS 
SHIPPED WITHOUT ICE. 
TOTAL DECAY. 
Careful Pick & Pack Com’l Pick & Pack 
Time of Non Non 
Examination Precooled Precooled Precooled Precooled 
Arrival 
0.1 
0.2 
1.7 
4.8 
After 1 
week. 
0.9 
0.7 
10.4 
11.0 
After 2 
weeks 
2.0 
3.1 
17.4 
19.5 
After 3 
weeks 
3.0 
4.9 
20.8 
28.5 
arrival are consistent with the data al¬ 
ready given. At the end of one, two> and 
three weeks, however, there is little or 
no difference in the amount of decay. 
The long express shipments from various 
market points may, however, account for 
the apparent inconsistencies in these fig¬ 
ures as regards decay at the end of one 
and two weeks. You will observe that 
the effect of handling is even more strik¬ 
ing than that of precooling and fully cor¬ 
roborates the work carried on by the De¬ 
partment for a number of seasons past. 
The results of these investigations this 
past season^ I think, should be considered 
only as indicative. The holding lots give 
the most dependable data. The data ob¬ 
tained from the shipping exepriments 
is not quite as satisfactory owing to the 
impossibility of having the cars sent to 
any one market. The fact, also, that no 
initial icing rates were not in effect the 
past season made it impossible to obtain 
cars for precooling with initial icing only. 
This next season, if crop and other con¬ 
ditions are favorable, we will take ad¬ 
vantage of the initial icing privileges re¬ 
cently granted and will carry on the ex¬ 
periments at some point or locality where 
a number of cars are sent regularly to 
some one market. This will permit of 
inspection of fruit of both precooled 
and non-precooled lots 'at one point and 
at the same time. In addition, temper¬ 
ature records will be taken in transit of 
a number of cars in order to obtain ac¬ 
curate and definite information in re¬ 
gard to temperature conditions in transit, 
both in precooled and non-precooled cars 
under both full and initial icing. The 
data above is given only as being indic¬ 
ative of results that may be expected 
under more favorable conditions for car¬ 
rying on these investigations. 
