STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 7I 



beyond its limit the capacity of the table. The other thickness 

 IS on loose so that after a dozen or more bushels of apples have 

 been packed and the table is cleaned off one can swing this top 

 cover back and throw off all the litter, then drop it back 

 ready for another lot of apples. The advantage of a packing 

 table of this sort is that every apple on the table is within reach 

 of the packer, and the top being of burlap, and the inside edges 

 of the sides being planed off, no apple comes against a sharp 

 corner and there is no opportunity for bruising if the apples 

 are poured rather gently from the picking baskets upon the 

 packing table. 



WHY APPLES DECAY. 



(From the Viewpoint of the Horticulturist.) 



By Victor R. Gardner, Assistant Professor of Horticulture, 



University of Maine. 



Most of the fruit growers' products are of a very perishable 

 nature. They come at particular seasons and then are not seen 

 again until the next year. Even in case of the apple, which 

 may be had during a longer period than any of the other fruits, 

 the bulk of the supply comes in late summer and early fall. 

 The demand, however, does not come mainly at this season but 

 is more or less constant throughout the entire year. In fact 

 the demand seems to be keenest during the winter and spring 

 months when the supply is smallest. The problem of the fruit 

 grower is not so much how to produce more fruit, for he gen- 

 erally has an abundance or even an over-supply in the fall, but 

 how to make his uneven supply meet the even demand. His 

 aim is to lengthen the season during which he can sell his fruit. 



Practically the only way to lengthen the apple selling season 

 is to place the fruit in storage. Yet, the storage of fresh fruit 

 is attended with no little risk. All who have stored fruit know 

 that there is likely to be more or less shrinkage from decay and 

 this prevents many from now storing their fruits who otherwise 

 would. It is to the reasons for this decay and to the ways by 

 which it may be prevented that the writer wishes to call atten- 

 tion. The observations upon which this paper is based were 



