FLORIDA ,STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
45 
poor reputations can hardly be given 
away. 
At one time it was thought that a cer¬ 
tain percentage of decay was inevitable 
and unavoidable. And this is true; but 
to a much more limited extent than was 
formerly recognized. Buyers take these 
losses into account in paying the produc¬ 
er for his crop, and they also take decay 
into account when they retail the fruit 
to the consumer. 
The producer is affected both ways: He 
not only receives less for his product, but 
the demand is decreased and fewer peo¬ 
ple can afford to buy. Buyers can nat¬ 
urally pay more for sound fruit which 
will hold up in the market, and they do 
not have to charge so great a margin of 
profit to the consumer. 
The bureau investigations were under¬ 
taken to determine the causes of decay 
and to make a study of the relation of 
handling the fruit for market to the oc¬ 
currence of decay, if there is such a re¬ 
lation. 
The cause of most of the decay is the 
growth of the blue mold fungus, one of 
the commonest forms of mold or decay. 
A thorough study of the behavior of the 
fungus on citrus fruits was made both in 
the laboratory and in the packing houses. 
What is here stated may be familiar to 
almost everybody present, but the point is 
so important that it is well worthy of rep¬ 
etition. 
Blue mold is not a true parasite, i. e., 
it does not live on healthy living tissue. 
It lives and grows on dead tissue just as 
the higher plants live in the soil and draw 
their nourishment from it. The fungus 
must have dead tissue on which to start. 
It must have moisture and warmth. It 
has not the power to penetrate the sound 
healthy skin of fruits. The fruit as it 
leaves the tree is a living organism. The 
rind is a complete covering of living, ac¬ 
tive cells which protect the fruit from the 
attacks of the fungus. But let some of 
these cells be killed by a bruise, or a 
scratch, or a cut—an abrasion of any 
kind—the fungus spores will germinate 
and grow at the injured places when the 
proper conditions of moisture and heat 
are present. These conditions usually ex¬ 
ist in the packed box of fruit. 
These facts were worked out in Cal¬ 
ifornia on a large scale in both packing 
houses and laboratory. Sound fruit cov¬ 
ered with spores held in rooms where 
both the temperature and humidity were 
kept very high for two weeks showed 
practically no decay. Injured fruit un¬ 
der the same conditions always rotted. 
The same principles were worked out 
in packed fruit and fruit in transit. 
This general principle—that the blue 
mold has not the power to penetrate the 
sound healthy skin of the fruit—was the 
only thing in the nature of “a theory” 
brought into the Florida work at the 
start. Will the principle of the relation 
of handling to decay hold true in Florida 
as it did in California? There were no 
previous theories other than this, and the 
workers set out to ascertain the actual 
facts by careful investigation and experi¬ 
ments. A close study of the conditions 
of handling oranges from the tree to the 
packing house, into the box and then 
through to the markets was made. A 
large amount of data have been accumu¬ 
lated. Fruit from different sections, and 
grown under different conditions was 
studied and the work was extended 
