The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1894-11-15
HOPE FOR CALIFORNIA FRUIT MEN.
Compressed Air and Carbonic Gas as
Personalities.
New Processes for Shipping Which
May Effect a Great Saving to
the Producers.

Some weeks since the RECORD UNION
referred to the shipment from this city of
a consignment of green fruit in a car
fitted up at the Southern Pacific shops
here for trying the experiment of pre-
serving fruit while en- route to the East
by the substitution of natural carbonic
acid gas for refrigeration. The expert
ment was reported to have been very sat
isfactory.
The idea is this: This gas entirely sus-
ponds all organic life, and by forcing the
air out of an alright fruit car and filling
the same with carbonic acid gas all decay
Is at once arrested, and it is claimed that
the fruit leaves the car in exactly the
same condition as it was in when packe
If under-ripe when shipped the process
OF ripening will not DO resumed until
after the car Is opened at the end of its
journey, thus enabling the fruit to be
kept that much longer in market. Ii ripe
when packed it will be no ripper when
taken out of the car.
This is the claim put forth by the men
who own the carbonic gas supply at Ala
MAIDEN, Santa Clara County, and they de-
clare that by this method the shipper will
save in the neighborhood OF Sl25 per car
on the present cost of refrigeration.
At the meeting OF the State Board Of
Trade in San Francisco on Tuesday, &.
NJ. Wooster of San lose, one of the pro-
moters OF the enterprise, made a long re-
port on the success of shipping fresh
fruit long distances under the carbonic
air process. He said that he and his as
sociateS had sent carload of ripe mixed
fruits and grapes raised in Fresno upon
irrigated lands TO Chicago as an expert
ment. which proved TO be i glorious sue
arlNn l,ofF a mo- a
into au air-tight car, which killed all the
germs in the atmosphere.
on the way the locomotive exploded
while climbing the Sierra Nevada, the
car was derailed and one compart-
ment smashed in. For all this, the
bulk OF the fruit reached Chicago in
eleven days in as perfect condition as the
day on which it was gathered. The only
fruit spoiled was that i'll the damaged
compartment After standing for seven
days the cargo sold for better prices than
the fruit just arrived in refrigerator
cars.
This gas lowers the temperature in the
cars, but heat does not affect The contents
A similar experiment, he said, was made
several years ago when carload of fruit
was left side-tracked i'll the Mojave desert
for three days in temperature of llU'.
The fruit was not injured in the least.
Tests in stationary storage with this gas
have proved equally successful in Santa
Clara County, several lots of fruit. berries
and grapes having been kept i'll perfect
condition for three years. The cost of
shipping by this method is very small.
At Tuesdays meeting Secretary tiIcher
also submitted a report on the result of
the Perkins compressed air process Tor
shipping fruit for long distances, which
he said was a success.
Colonel j. p. Irish stated that the sue
cess OF the experiment is due to Secretary
Filcher's great efforts to bring 1t to
practical test, he having obtained the car,
collected the 1ruit and the means OF trans
portation. The test so far has proved
satisfactory, and, if the fruit, grapes and
flowers which were sent to New Orleans
return in as good order as expected, the
1ruit-growers have indeed bright future.