286 



Stale Horticultural Socictv. 



The following figures represent the number of barrels of apples held 

 in the United States In cold storage about December ist of each year 

 since 1898, and give a conception of the magnitude and growth of the 

 apple storage business as a whole : 



APPLES IN STORAGE ABOUT DECEMBER 1, 1898-1902. 



There are many practical difficulties in the cold storage of apples 

 and these difficulties arise through lack of information concerning the 

 principles which g-overn the production of the fruit in the orchard and 

 the effect of various conditions of growth and of the different commercial 

 methods of handling the crop in the orchard and in transit, on its vital 

 processes. This condition leads to frequent misunderstandings between 

 the warehousemen, the fruit grower, and fruit handler which might be 

 avoided and the condition of the fruit storage business improved if there* 

 was a clear understanding of the principles of fruit growing in their 

 relation to the ultimate keeping quality of the fruit itself. 



The United States Department of Agriculture has been investigating 

 many of these problems during the last two years, and I desire to present 

 a few of the practical results that have been emphasized by our in- 

 vestigations. 



INFLUENCE OF TEMPERATUliE ON TIIF KEEPING OLTALITY OF THE FRUIT. 



A fruit is a living organism in which the life processes go forward 

 more slowly in low temperatures. When the fruit naturally reaches the 

 end of its life, it dies from old age. It may be killed prematurely by 

 rots which lodge on the fruit before it is picked or sometime afterward. 

 A cold temperature is designed to arrest the ripening processes and there- 

 by to prolong its life history. It is designed also to check the develop- 

 ment of the diseases with which the fruit is afflicted, but it cannot pre- 

 vent the ripening of the fruit nor the slow growth of some of the dis- 

 eases. The lower the temperature in which the fruit may be safely 

 stored, the more nearly are the ripening processes stopped. In the in- 

 vestigations of the department, apples have been stored In temperatures 

 ranging from ^i to 36 degrees, and it has been found that a temperature 

 of 31 to 32 degrees is more efficient in checking ripening than a higher 

 temperature, and that the quality of the fruit and its other characteristics 



