Cork insulation; a complete illustrated textbook on cork insulation ...

STANDARD CAR 453
the distribution of our perishables attracted an increasing amount of
attention because the length of the hauls increased as more distant
markets demanded supplies, and the losses from decay in transit
kept pace with the distance traveled. Some of the shippers applied
to the United States Department of Agriculture for assistance, among
them the Georgia peach growers. These growers were in trouble;
they could not successfully ship their product to northern markets
because of the losses from decay. So in 1903 Mr. G. Harold Powell
and his associates undertook to investigate the matter. They studied
the effect on ripening of cooling the fruit quickly after picking and
before loading in the car as well as the development of decay in
transit. Precooling, however, was not a reliable remedy because the
<strong>insulation</strong> of the refrigerator car of the south was, and is, insufficient
to retain the chill imparted to the fruit and the air circulation in the
cars was, and is, inadequate to transfer the refrigeration from the ice
bunkers to the center and top of the load. This is a handicap which
limits the distribution of the Georgia peach crop and from which the
industry has never been able to escape. So universal is the failure
of the cars to refrigerate the top layers and the middle of the car,
that receivers expect to market the load as at least two grades,
though the pack may have been uniform when shipped. To anticipate
the story somewhat, I may say here that when carloads of peaches
in adequate refrigerator cars came into the market during the summer
of 1918, with top, bottom, middle and ends all in like condition,
the astonishment of the trade was interesting to contemplate. The
higher prices to the shippers, likewise, were gratifying in the ex-
treme, and the railroads had no claims to pay.
From Georgia peaches the investigators were called to California
oranges. The industry was severely handicapped because of decay
in transit. Again the inadequacies of the refrigerator cars were
apparent. The investigations of the temperature in cars in transcon-
tinental trips brought out the differences in the different parts of the
car and their relation to the excessive decay in the middle of the
load and its upper portion. With oranges which ripen slowly after
picking, careful handling in orchard and packing house to eliminate
decay could go much farther toward ensuring preservation than with
quick ripening peaches. It is interesting to observe, too, the improvements
in <strong>insulation</strong> and general construction undergone by the
far western refrigerator cars, in response to the definite information
furnished and the demands of the great western fruit business. How-
ever, these improvements were practically all based on the requirements
of citrus fruits, which are, as we now know, extremely easy
to refrigerate if they are well picked, graded and packed. The needs
of deciduous fruits, poultry, eggs, butter, fish and delicate vegetables
were still little known and uncared for.
In 1908 the Food Research Laboratory, which had been studying
the effect of long cold storage on poultry, extended the work to the
handling of the fresh goods in the packing houses and in transit.