Citrus Fruit Handling and Storage 
A. W. McKay 
ASSISTANT IN FRUIT TRANSPORTATION AND STORAGE INVESTIGATIONS 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The citrus fruit handling and trans¬ 
portation investigations of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry were begun in Florida in 
1906 and continued until the season of 
1911-1912. The results of this work 
have been presented to the members of 
this Society at various annual meetings 
by Messrs. Tenny, Stubenrauch and 
Ramsey, and the majority of you are 
doubtless familiar with what has been 
accomplished. At the end of last year 
it was felt that six consecutive seasons 
of experimental work had demonstrated 
thoroughly the causes of blue mold de¬ 
cay in Florida oranges, in transit and on 
the market, and the value of careful 
handling in preventing such decay. If 
any further demonstration was needed, 
or is needed, it is furnished on a com¬ 
mercial scale by an increasingly large 
number of growers and shippers of cit¬ 
rus fruit who have adopted careful han¬ 
dling methods. There are now packing 
houses in the State whose records are 
conclusive evidence that it is not only pos¬ 
sible but practicable, to handle oranges 
and grapefruit so that they will arrive on 
the market with little or no decay, even 
under the most unfavorable weather con¬ 
ditions. 
The work of the office of Field Inves¬ 
tigation in Pomelos in Florida, this sea¬ 
son, has related more directly to an¬ 
other phase of the fruit handling prob¬ 
lem. Last October, in co-operation with 
the Cocoanut Grove Citrus Growers’ As¬ 
sociation, and with Mr. Temple, at Win¬ 
ter Park, an investigation of the factors 
relating to grapefruit storage was begun. 
The object of these experiments has been 
to determine whether or not it is feasible 
to extend the marketing period and equal¬ 
ize the distribution of Florida grapefruit 
by holding the fruit in storage for some 
time before shipment. The work has been 
carried on throughout the entire season, 
and there is still a considerable quantity 
of grapefruit in storage at both Winter 
Park and Cocoanut Grove. This will be 
held for at least one or two months’ 
longer. 
As a further extension of the fruit 
handling investigations in this State, a 
preliminary study of pineapple handling 
and transportation will be begun at Fort 
Pierce in a few weeks. These experi¬ 
ments will include some fundamental 
work on the effect of different types of 
handling on pineapples picked at different 
stages of maturity—green, just coloring, 
and fully plant-ripened. The question of 
shipping pineapples under refrigeration 
