442 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



of the holding will depend entirely on the condition of the fruit. 

 Fruit that goes into cold storage over mature or over ripe cannot be 

 held as long as fruit that goes into storage in prime condition. 

 Fruit that goes into storage in a poor condition is by no means im- 

 proved in cold storage, but it may be held for a little longer period. 

 For a number of years there have been most serious disputes be- 

 tween the warehouse men and the people who store the fruit. The 

 fruit has not always gone out well and the warehouse man has been 

 held or attempted to be held responsible for the results. You will 

 note that our department in Washington has been making extensive 

 investigations on this line. My son has been very much interested 

 in this work, and it has been a pleasure for me to co-operate with 

 him in the experiments, and my farui with others, has been used in 

 experimental work. 



We very soon learned, not only from experience, but from the 

 careful investigations that have been made that the warehouse man 

 is not altogether responsible for the condition of the fruit that goes 

 in and comes out. He must be held responsible only for the con- 

 trol of temperature and the proper handling of fruit in the storage 

 A number of years ago 1 constructed a storage building and under- 

 took to hold my fruit through the agency of ice. The first holding 

 was with several hundred boxes of Bartlett pears. They went in in ' 

 very good condition. They kept for several weeks very well, but 

 when the time came for the marketing of fruit there was a very un- 

 expected change in the coming up and ripening of this fruit. Some 

 of it was coming up ripe before the time to ship. W^e did not under- 

 stand the importance of getting the fruit in storage as quickly as 

 possible after it was gathered. We had not the facilities for keeping 

 our temperature even, as it should be. In looking back over the 

 experiment, we found records of wide variation of temperature, 

 which was undoubtedly responsible for this unexpected ripening of 

 the fruit. Then again, we must have knowledge of the varieties 

 best suited for holding. All varieties do not hold alike. Further- 

 more, we must understand about the age of our trees. We have 

 learned by experience and a careful investigation of the matter that 

 there is a difference in the holding of apples grown from young or- 

 chards when stored side by side with those of old trees. This is a 

 very important matter for all growers, who attempt to hold fruit 

 to understand. Then again, there is another very important phase 

 of the subject and that is the growing of the fruit, the question of 

 tillage and of sod influence. Apples grown in sod or grass keep bet- 

 ter than those grown under tillage. The question of pruning the 

 trees and thinning the fruit was brought out in the discussion of 

 this morning. They are both factors in the variation of maturitv of 

 apples. We cannot go over an orchard and pick all of the fruit at 

 one time, and expect the best results from it, because of its varying 

 maturity. Hence, we need to prune our trees that we can secure the 

 largest quantity of fruit maturing at one time, that we may have a 

 strong, even development of the fruitage which will help to pro- 

 duce a greater uniformity in quality. In the beginning we had 

 never thought of these questions in the handling of our fruit for 

 storage purposes. In the experiments which were tried on my own 



