70 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
riculture at Washington began the study 
of conditions in this State to see if these 
questions could be answered. Previous 
to that time considerable work had been 
done in California, and some very definite 
results obtained. These have recently 
been published in Bulletin 123, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, entitled, The Decay of Or¬ 
anges While in Transit from California, 
by G. Harold Powell and several assist¬ 
ants. At the last annual meeting of this 
society held at St. Petersburg, I had the 
pleasure of outlining our experiments in 
Florida and giving the results we had 
secured up to that time. The investiga¬ 
tion has been continued during the past 
season and valuable additional data se¬ 
cured. 
Briefly stated, the losses from decay of 
oranges while in transit from Florida 
amount annually to one-half or three- 
quarter million dollars. The principal 
loss is due to a decay or rot which is pro¬ 
duced by the growth of a mold or fun¬ 
gus within the tissue of the orange. The 
most common fungus is a species of peni- 
cillimn. This trouble cannot be called a 
disease for sound, healthy fruit is not at¬ 
tacked by the fungus and seldom rots. It 
seems to be necessary first to puncture the 
rind of the fruit, or to bruise it in some 
way sufficient to kill the tissue. If now 
the seed of the fungus are present at this 
injured place, the first step toward decay 
has been taken and if the temperature 
and moisture conditions during the fol¬ 
lowing few days are suitable for the de¬ 
velopment of the fungus, the orange is 
sure to rot. On the other hand, large 
quantities of fruit have been held experi¬ 
mentally under weather conditions most 
favorable for the development of decay, 
yet when the fruit has been carefully 
handled and the skin of the orange has 
been uninjured, there has been practically 
no loss, even when the spores or seed of 
the fungus- have been purposely placed 
over the surface of the fruit. 
This belief is not a theory or a labora¬ 
tory scheme. In 1905, experiment work 
conducted in six packing houses in Cali¬ 
fornia, holding the fruit for two weeks 
under the most trying conditions, fre¬ 
quently in a lemon-curing room, so that 
often from 50 to 100 per cent, of the in¬ 
jured fruit decayed, yet the average de¬ 
cay for all the sound uninjured lots was 
only 4.9 per cent. Iu 1906, the experi¬ 
ments were in 15 houses and the average 
decay for the carefully handled fruit was 
1.5 per cent. In 1907, the number of 
houses where work was done was in¬ 
creased to 31 and the average decay for 
sound fruit was 2.Q per cent. In addi¬ 
tion to these experiments, where the 
fruit was held in the packing houses, last 
season 186 cars were shipped from Cal¬ 
ifornia in which there were placed exper¬ 
imental lots of oranges. Under ventila.- 
tion the sound fruit shipped immediately 
arrived in New York City with 1.4 per 
cent decay; under ice with 1.1 per cent, 
decay. 
While these figures are for California 
oranges, yet we are finding that the same 
principles hold true in Florida. A11 or¬ 
ange without a cut or scratch on the skin 
and which has not been bruised in pick¬ 
ing and packing, almost invariably keeps. 
Last season the carefully handled fruit 
held packed here in the Florida houses 
for two weeks, contained 2.9 per cent, 
decay. This present season the same lots 
showed 2.1 per cent, waste. This has 
been the first season for any shipping ex¬ 
periments from this State and the results 
show the very encouraging average of 
