36 State Horticnltiiral Society. 



COLD STORAGE ON THE FARM. 



(W. T. Flournoy, Marionville, Mo.) 



Every grower of apples in this Southwestern O'zark region knows 

 that just about packing time we are apt to have days, sometimes several 

 days in succession, during which the thermometer registers too high for 

 the material welfare of his apples. The grower also knows that often 

 after he has the apples packed they may have to wait a few days, or 

 perhaps only a few hours, for a car on which to load them, and even 

 after being loaded on the car there is often delay in getting them into 

 the rooms of the cold storage houses, which are situated at a distance 

 from the orchard. 



O'nly the packer and the storage men know how disastrous even a 

 few hours of heat can sometimes be to apples headed up in a barrel, thus 

 causing them to go into the storage house already well ripened and per- 

 haps in really bad condition for storage. With storage facilities on the 

 farm all this trouble is obviated. It is then possible and practical, too, 

 to leave the apples on the trees until they are well colored and in prime 

 condition for gathering. Then gather them, place them in barrels or 

 boxes, without pressing, put them into the cool room, there to remain 

 until they are brought out in the cooler weather, packed fresh and turned 

 over to the consumer or to the commission man, every barrel full and 

 every apple good and firm and in condition to hold up in good shape 

 until it is used. The apples, because of having been left on the trees 

 until well matured, have the best flavor and the best keeping qualities, 

 as have been described by our government experts and other specialists 

 in this line. Storage on the farm makes it possible to save the poorer 

 grades of fruit until the weather is cooler, so that they may be marketed 

 at a profit to the grower. It is possible to furnish this fruit to a class 

 of near-by consumers who could not afiford to buy a better grade that had 

 been shipped a long distance. 



We have seasons when the apple crop is light, and perhaps the qual- 

 ity is not as good as it should be, when the buyer or the commission 

 dealer does not come to buy our apples at packing time, but goes some- 

 where else where there is a better crop, perhaps it may be to New York 

 or Michigan. When that happens apples at packing time are too cheap to 

 be profitable, and it is a question in my mind whether, in a year like this, 

 it pays the grower to pack his fruit and ship to a distance to store. 



Then again, in years of great production, when there is fruit every- 



