stage to the alcoliolic can only develop when the temperature is con- 

 siderahly above freezing. It follows, therefore, that if fruit is 

 stored in a chaml)er where the temperature can be hept near the 

 freezing point, germs of fermentation or decay will not develoj) and 

 the fruit will remain in an inactive condition ; in other words, the 

 ripening process which precedes the decaying process does not go on. 

 On this principle is founded the practice of placing fruits in cold 

 storage. 



All farmers and fruit growers cannot afford to erect elaborate 

 storing houses, but it will pay most fruit growers to put up storage 



Sorting and packing in the ordiard. 



houses in which their perishable fruits may be safely stored at times 

 when the market presents unfavorable selling opportunities. When 

 fruit growers are entirely without storehouses they aj'e practically 

 at the mercy of the buyer and the fluctuating market prices. It 

 was due to this fact that much of the 1900 apple crop of Western 

 New York -was sold at low if not unremunerative rates. 



Bruises shorten the keejnng season of fruit. — Fruit pickers sel- 

 dom realize how much the normal keeping season of a fruit is 

 shortened by bruises due to careless, indifferent handling. ' When 



the flesh of an apple is bruised, the cells are crushed, the juices are 



419 



