Page 6 



BETTER FRUIT 



Nozrjnhcr 



change as fashions in colors of clothes, 

 or hats or tics, change. At one time 

 russet apples were in great demand — 

 not so now. In some markets Green 

 Newtowns or Yellow Belleflowcrs or 

 Rhode Island Greenings arc still pre- 

 ferred. The present tendency to plant 

 nothing but red apples is bound to 

 make them less the fashion in time and 

 to give greater demand for green, yel- 

 low and russet fruits. That color is 

 quite unrelated to permanent value is 

 proved by these changes and variations 

 in fashion. The point I am seeking to 

 make is, that we are following a i)re,ju- 

 dice in rating one color above another 

 regardless of ciuality. This prejudice 

 is detrimental to fruit growing and 

 fruitgrowers should seek to overcome 

 it by calling attention to the good quali- 

 ties of apples regardless of color. 

 "Plumage proclaims the fowl" but color 

 does not proclaim the fruit. Wc are all 

 well aoi-eed, however, that it is very 

 desirable to put a variety on the market 

 in its own distinctive color, provided 

 too much is not sacrificed in securing 

 characteristic color. How may the 

 color of varieties be kept normal, true 

 and distinctive? 



It is impossible to discuss color intel- 

 ligently unless we know what color is. 

 What makes the gold of the Pippin, or 

 the red of the Spitzenberg? To define 

 carefully in this case takes us far afield 

 in organic chemistry, where all but 

 those bred therein are soon hopelessly 

 lost. It is difficult to make even a few 

 simple statements in regard to color 

 without becoming entangled in the 

 jargon of chemistry. But, in brief, 

 some of the colors of fruits ar-e carried 

 in small gi'anules or corpuscles, while 

 others are dissolved in the cell sap. 

 Thus, the green, yellow, orange and 

 some of the red colors are due to the 

 presence of millions of brightlv-stained 

 corpuscles in the cells of the skin, 

 while other reds, especially those of a 

 violet cast, are due to stained cell sap. 

 The color-bearing corpuscles are de- 

 rived from the chlorophxll or leaf- 

 green of the plant; colored sap is 

 largely the result of oxidizing agents 

 acting on certain substances in the 

 fruit. 



The oxidizing agents and the sub- 

 stances they act upon are ])resent in 

 green fruits in combination. As the 

 fruits rijien the combination slowly 

 breaks and oxidization takes place. 

 The formation of color corpuscles, too, 

 depends upon the action of oxygen in 

 the presence of light and certain food 

 elements. This is the briefest possible 

 statement of how a very complex 

 process takes place in which the facts 

 to be emphasized are that oxidization 

 goes on as a fruit begins to ripen and 

 that coloring is an indication of ripen- 

 ing, and ceases when the fruit is fully 

 ripe. Now a fruit is rightly ripe only 

 when it is brought to its fullest ma- 

 turity. But there are no well-marked 

 lines between greenness, maturity and 

 decay. These stages grade insensibly 

 into each other, but coloring, it is well 

 to remember, continues up to the point 

 at which the tissues begin to decay. 



Shakespeare might have had the riijen- 

 ing and coloring of fruit in mind when 

 he wrote, "And so, from hour to hour, 

 we ripe and ripe, and then, from houi- 

 to hour, we rot and rot." Coming as 

 tpiickly as possible to practical aijjjli- 

 cations of all this, we have at once to 

 call your attention to the fact that the 

 coloring of fruits is largely a chemical 

 process and that chemical processes 

 are piofoundly influenced by the condi- 

 tions under which they take place. 

 Chief of these in infiuencing color 

 formation in plants arc light and heat, 

 but there are others as food or lack of 

 it, moisture, chemicals in the soil and 

 <lisease. 



l-.very fruitgrower knows that the in- 

 tensit\' of color in fruits depends 

 largely on the amount of light. Like 

 the complexion of the dusky Moor, 

 the color of fruit is often "but the 

 burnished rays of the burning sun." 

 Poorly-colored fruits are often due to 

 close planting and density of tree top, 

 whereby sunlight is excluded. Light 

 largely determines the rate and the 

 amount of oxidization that takes place 

 in plant cells, and bright light makes all 

 color-production processes active. The 

 efi'ects of an abundance of light in pro- 

 ducing high color are to be seen in top 

 branches, in open-centered trees, in 

 outside and wi(le-a])art rows and in the 

 products of the sunlit states of the West 

 or the high altitudes of any fruit-grow- 

 ing region. Of the few means at the 

 conunand of the fruitgrower to obtain 

 better color, those having to do with 

 securing more light are most efiicient — 

 as pruning, greater distance apart of 

 trees and in selecting sites best exposed 

 to the sun. Not onl\- does light from 

 the sun influence the amount of color 

 in fruil but solar heat has its etTect. 

 One wlio has not given the matter 

 thought innuetliately jumps to the con- 

 clusion that the warmer the weather 

 the brighter the colors, whereas the 

 contrary is usually the case. We found 

 from records of twenty-five harvests in 

 New York that apples usually colored 

 espcciallv well in falls when they 

 ripened in cool weather, more particu- 

 larly so if the nights were cool and the 

 da\s bright and sunny. Indeed, saving 

 numerous "just exceptions and reserva- 

 tions," it is not too nuich to say that 

 rainy weather by lowering the tem- 

 perature, especially if it alternates 

 with sunshine, may help to give high 

 color to fruit. The etVects of low tem- 

 perature on color may well be seen in 

 Northern climates and high altitudes, 

 where colors are always brighter than 

 in warm climates or low altitudes. The 

 cool nights of the Pacific Northwest aic 

 nearly as potent as the sunny days in 

 giving color to the fruits of that region. 

 There is a plausible reason for the 

 efl'ects just ascribed to cool weathei- 

 in influencing color. The chemical 

 changes which bring about color in 

 fruit accompany the period of ripening. 

 Xow riiK'ning marks the cessation of 

 cell activities — comes with the death of 

 cells. In fact, color-pignunts may al- 

 most be said to be waste iirodiicts — the 

 "ashes of the vital fires" of cells, (^)l(l 



hastens the death of the cell, the ripen- 

 ing of the fruit and so increases color. 

 (Climate, in the three phases just dis- 

 cussed, light, heat and moisture, greatly 

 modifies the bloom on fruits. The 

 bloom of fruit does not differ from that 

 of poppies, of which the poet says, 

 "You seize the (lower, the bloom is 

 shed." Nevertheless it gi-eatly adds to 

 the beauty of the product if present in 

 any considerable amount, and modifies 

 the color favorably despite the absurd 

 practice of rubbing off the bloom jjrac- 

 ticed by many in exhibiting. Bloom is 

 a valuable asset to fruit and should be 

 increased and preserved. 



Nothing is more certain than that the 

 character of the soil influences the 

 color of fruit. Every fruitgrower with 

 any consideiable number of trees of 

 one variety must have noticed that the 

 fruit on some trees are better colored 

 than that from other trees. Not infre- 

 (juently most striking differences can 

 be found in orchards located but a few 

 miles apart. Yet what it is in soils that 

 influences color is not well understood. 

 From the evidence now at hand, it 

 seems that color effects must be due to 

 physical conditions as soil heat, aera- 

 tion and drainage, all of which would 

 help in causing the crop to mature early 

 and thoroughly. With the single ex- 

 ception of nitrogen none of the baker's 

 dozen of elements made use of by 

 plants under ordinary conditions exer- 

 cise a decided influence on the color of 

 fruits. The belief is current that 

 orchard products arc jjoorlv colored on 

 acid soils and that addinu lime will 

 cause them to take on brighter hues, 

 but there seems to be no experimental 

 confirmation of such effects of acid and 

 alkali soils. A half-dozen fertilizer ex- 

 periments with apples might be cited to 

 show that fertilizers do not favorably 

 affect the colors of this fruit. In par- 

 ticular, the i)opular generalization that 

 "potash i)aints fruits," conuuon in the 

 press and reiterated on every page of 

 fertilizer advertising literature, finds no 

 verification in fertilizer experiments 

 with apples. There is a great abun- 

 dance of observational evidence to 

 show that nitrogen, especially when 

 a])plied in stable manure anti nitro- 

 genous cover crops turned under, 

 causes a lessening of intensity in color. 

 If the position be well taken that color 

 conies with maturity and the death of 

 cells it would be expected that nitrogen 

 would decrease color, since its use gen- 

 erally promotes and prolongs growth 

 and delays maturity of apples. This 

 leads to the statement that usually 

 whatever increases the growth of 

 auples is antagonistic to high coloring. 

 Nothing moie strikingly illustrates this 

 than the diffeience in color and size of 

 apples grown on tilled and sodded land. 

 ,\s every fruilgrowei' knows, apples 

 grown in sod are smaller, more highly 

 colored and mature earlier than those 

 grown on tilled land. Wei'e it not for 

 the fact that sod cultiue greatly lowers 

 the productiveness of an orchard, this 

 means of increasing coloi' might be 

 recommended. So, too, apples grown 

 on diseased, girdled, i[ijured or very 



