12 



THE APPLE IN COLD STOKAGE. 



The magnitude and growth of the apple-storage business as a whole 

 may be better appreciated by reference to the accompanying table, 

 which represents the number of barrels held in the United States both 

 in cold and common storage about December 1 each year since 1898: a 



Apples in storage about December 1, 1898-19n.'. 



The approximate number of barrels stored in Canada and Nova 

 Scotia on December 1, 1902, was 137,200 in common storage, and 



32,800 in cold storage. 



THE FUNCTION OF THE COLD-STORAGE WAREHOUSE. 



There is a good deal of misapprehension as to the function of a 

 cold-storage house in the preservation of fruits. This condition leads 

 to frequent misunderstandings between the warehouseman and the fruit 

 storer, though they might be avoided and the condition of the fruit- 

 storage business improved if there was a clearer definition of the influ- 

 ence on fruit preservation of cultural conditions, of the commercial 

 methods of handling, and of the methods of storage. 



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

 more slowly in low temperatures, but do not cease even in the lowest 

 temperatures in which the fruit may be safely stored. When the fruit 

 naturally reaches the end of its life it dies from old age. It may be 

 killed prematurely by rots, usually caused by fungi which lodge on the 

 fruit before it is packed, or sometimes afterwards. The cold-storage 

 house is designed to arrest the ripening processes in a temperature that 

 will not injure the fruit in other respects and thereby to prolong its 

 life history. It is designed also to retard the development of the dis- 

 eases with which the fruit is afflicted, but it can not prevent the slow 

 growth of some of them. It follows that the behavior of different 

 apples or lots of apples in a storage room is largely dependent on their 

 condition when they enter the room. If they are in a dissimilar con- 

 dition of ripeness, or have been grown or handled differently, or vary 

 in other respects, these differences may be expected to appear as the 

 fruit ripens slowly in the low temperature. If the fruit is already 

 overripe, the low temperature can not prevent its deterioration sooner 

 than would be the case with apples of the same variety that were in a 



^Statistics furnished through the courtesy of the National Apple Shippers' 

 Association. 



