Bulletin 229, Diseases of Citrus in Florida


placed on the importance of proper machinery and efficient
supervision in the packinghouse. The house should be kept in
a strictly sanitary condition and all machinery should be kept in
such repair as to function properly. Every possible precaution
should be taken to prevent rough handling of the fruit by all
parties concerned. The water in the soaking tank should be
changed often and all trash should be cleaned out daily. Care
should be taken not to get the fruit too hot in the drier, as this
will cause it to sweat and make a condition favorable for the de-
velopment of decay. Tissue wrappers retard refrigeration and
inspection, promote the development of decay, and are a nuisance
to the retail merchant.
 Considerable decay often results from the use of the bulge
pack. The pack should not be made so high that the fruit must
be crushed or bruised in nailing the covers on the boxes. It is
by no means unusual, upon opening boxes of fruit at the markets,
to see the blue and green mold decays most prevalent near the
ends and the middle of the top layer. A good, tight pack with
a medium bulge, in which no fruit is injured in putting on the
covers, will carry better than a pack with a 3 or 31/2 inch bulge.
The bulge on a fruit box is viewed with much disfavor by steam-
ship officials, since it interferes with their method of loading.
Since fruit may be called upon to withstand rougher handling
on steamships than it does in freight cars, it is advisable to use
somewhat heavier box material, to build up the middle partition
with a strip to support the bulged top, and to strap the boxes
at three points.
 Loading in Relation to Decay:-The manner of loading fruit,
either in railway cars or ships, will greatly influence the develop-
ment of decay and the loss from breakage. In many instances
fruit is loaded by inexperienced hands, in which case it is rarely
done properly. The load should be properly stripped and braced
so that it will not shift in transit. When shifting of the load
occurs there is invariably more or less breakage of boxes, which
means injured and decayed fruit. The stacks or boxes should
be so arranged as to allow proper ventilation. It should always
be remembered that the air usually is several degrees warmer at
the top of the car than at the bottom.
 Transportation in Relation to Decay:-It is exceedingly im-
portant that the proper conditions in transit be furnished if the
fruit is to arrive on the market in good, saleable condition. Tem-