72 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
one small district counts were made at 
one time in four different orchards, with 
the following percentages of clipper cuts. 
1.4 per cent., 1.6 per cent., 3.8 per cent., 
and 10.4 per cent. It is rather sugges¬ 
tive that of these, the first gang was 
paid by the day, while the last one was 
on box work. In another orchard two 
men were working together. Two boxes 
of fruit from each were examined. The 
first picker had cut but four oranges, 
while his companion had literally slaugh¬ 
tered 65. 
In another place, the average injury 
done on a ranch, where the owner had 
everything under his direct control was 
slightly over 6 per cent. At a nearby 
packing house where the owner pur¬ 
chased all his fruit and had his picking 
done under the supervision of a fore¬ 
man, the total injury found at one in¬ 
spection was only 1.6 per cent. The dif¬ 
ference lay in that on the first place the 
pickers worked largely by themselves, 
without proper instruction and inspection. 
The second foreman had been trained by 
us to watch for injury and had person¬ 
ally instructed each picker and inspected 
his work, until almost uniformly good 
work was done. 
INJURIES OTHER THAN' THOSE MADE BY 
CLIPPERS. 
It is not necessary that the injury be 
made with the clippers in order to cause 
the fruit to decay. Any other abrasion 
through which the seed of the fungus 
can enter the fruit does the same dam¬ 
age. Frequently there are found or¬ 
anges in the box that have been thorn 
punctured, scratched on the branches of 
the tree, cut by nails or splinters in the 
box, or injured by the finger nails. Many 
of these are made through carelessness 
and haste on the part of the picker and 
therefore vary with individual pickers. 
The amount of thorn puncturing done 
while the fruit is still on the tree is sur¬ 
prisingly small or at least the decay 
which results from such puncturing is 
small. After a heavy wind decaying or¬ 
anges may frequently be seen hanging on 
the trees. If the fruit is picked soon after 
such a storm, some punctured oranges 
are found. But more damage is done 
by “thorning” as the pickers pull the 
fruit from among the branches. In the 
gang referred to a short time ago as hav¬ 
ing a careful foreman 3 per cent, of the 
fruit had body bruises. In the different 
boxes there were all the way from 2 to 
8 injured oranges. The fruit from four 
other pickers in another locality showed 
the following high percentages of body 
injuries. 7.6 per cent., 15 per cent., 22.4 
per cent., and 23.6 per cent. Add to 
these injuries two or three oranges per 
box cut by the finger nails, and another 
two or three and frequently more bruised 
by nails or splinters in the box. A large 
amount of damage is possible therefore, 
before the fruit has left the grove on its 
journey to the market. 
LONG STEMS. 
Considerable emphasis in the past has 
been placed by orchard men on having 
the fruit cut with the stems short. It 
has been realized that an orange with a 
long sharp stem was capable of doing 
much damage. The long stem in itself 
causes no trouble; it is only when the 
stem has been brought into contact with 
another fruit and the rind punctured that 
damage is done. The amount of injury, 
therefore, depends largely on the extent 
and the nature of the handling of the 
fruit after picking. More puncturing is 
done if the fruit is dropped 18 inches or 
