136 NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



purposes. The cause of apple scald is not well understood. Of the 

 many theories which have been advanced, there are two which it 

 seems have a more direct bearing upon the cause of the trouble. 

 These two are temperature and maturity. Prom the experience of the 

 past four years we are led to believe that maturity has more to do 

 with scald than does temperature, except as temperature may have a 

 bearing upon maturity. A well matured, we41 colored apple will not 

 scald in cold storage. At least not as early as will poorly colored 

 or immature fruits. I have never seen a fully colored red apple scald. 

 The scald also follows the uncolored portions of the red varieties 

 and does not appear on the red portions. During the fall of 1912 we 

 had boxes of Grimes Golden, Sheriff, Mammoth Black Twig and Wine- 

 sap, which were held in the packing shed for some time before being 

 sent to the cold storage plant. This fruit showed very much less 

 scald than that which was stored immediately. Other boxes of these 

 same varieties were placed in a common cellar storage. These apples 

 showed much less scald than either those delayed stored fruits and 

 the cold storage fruits. In addition to these boxes, some fruit of tlie 

 Mammoth Black Twig variety was sold to neighbors. Some of these 

 apples were kept in the cellars without having been in cold storage,. 

 These apples showed no scald by April 1st, while the cold stored fruit 

 was unfit for market at that time. It is my opinion that all of this 

 fruit, whether delayed or cellar stored, had an opportunity to properly 

 mature so that scald did not appear. While the cold stored fruit was 

 not sufficiently matured to prevent scald. Some maintain that these 

 varieties which show scald should be held at higher temperatures 

 in order to prevent scald. Such may possibly be the case, but I am 

 inclined to think that the only effect of higher temperatures is as^ 

 it affects maturity. 



Shriveling. 



Shriveling is caused by the loss of moisture within the ap^>le. 

 Ther are several things that may cause the fruit to shrivel. One 

 which has often been overlooked is skin-breaks, such as cracks, limb 

 bruises, spray burn, etc. Probably the spray burn has seldom boea 

 thought to cause the fruit to shrivel by allowing the juices of the 

 fruit or cell sap to evaporate, but such is the case. In selecting fruit 

 for cold storage, especially for late spring storage, all skin breaks of 

 any sort should be rejected. Such varieties as Ralls Genet, or Salome, 

 which have a tendency to crack should not be stored for late consdiitp- 

 tion in seasons when this trouble is prevalent. 



The question of shriveling must necessarily be closely related to 

 the percentage of moisture in the atmosphere, or in other words to 

 tiie relative humidity. Storing apples in a dry atmosphere will cause 

 them to shrivel. Too moist an atmosphere, especially if the tempera- 

 is relatively liigh. is detrimental. The optimum humidity with a given 

 temperature has 'never been determined so far as 1 am aware. Definite 



