Fruit and Vegetable Marketing For many years southern Illinois has produced considerable quantities of fruits and vegetables intended primarily for Chicago and other nearby markets. Direct rail transportation from the producing regions to these markets enabled the growers to harvest their products and place them on the market in twenty-four to thirty-six hours. Under such conditions good fruit required few special precautions to insure its arrival in good condition. Increased competition has forced Illinois producers to seek new and more distant markets for their products. Wider distribution of Illinois grown commodities has brought about handling problems that were foreign to the shorthaul business prevailing in former years. Fruit in carlots has frequently arrived in the markets overripe or decayed, with consequent losses to the producers. The most perishable commodities regularly shipped in carlots from Illinois are strawberries, peaches, and summer apples. When investigations were begun in 1926 with the object of seeking solutions of the problems concerned in the handling and transporting of Illinois perishables, the above mentioned commodities were selected as logical materials for these studies. Special attention has been given to certain phases of the refrigeration of these fruits in transit. A portion of the results obtained from these investigations are here reported. DISCUSSION OF THE LITERATURE Considerable literature has appeared from time to time dealing with the general subject of refrigeration in transit and with many of its separate phases. Much of this has been published as reports, either formal or informal, of experimental work along these lines. Discussions based on personal opinions or general experience are by no means rare. Space does not here permit nor do circumstances, warrant a complete discussion of the literature pertaining to refrigerated transportation of fruits and vegetables. This discussion is therefore confined largely to reports on actual experimental work having a direct bearing on the subject. No attempt is made to consider new or unusual schemes for refrigerating railway cars. The tests here reported were conducted with the cooperation of the Illinois Central Railroad Company. 511 512 BULLETIN No. 334 [Jut Much of the work relating to the refrigeration of perishables in transit has been done by the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Many tests, however, have been conducted by railroads and by private carl lines, but most of the results thus obtained have never been made public and are therefore not available .to the general reader. Ripening and Rot as Related to Temperature Gore 7 * found that fruits respired much more rapidly at high than at low temperatures, and that for 49 sets of determinations with 40 different kinds of fruits the rate of respiration increased an j average of 2.376 times for every 10 C. rise in temperature. Gandy strawberries doubled their rate of respiration with an 8.2 C. rise in temperature. Elberta peaches did the same with an 8.4 C. rise, andj Yellow...