760 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



of soo"l cider. The apples must not be allowed to lie too long, however, after the 

 ptarfli has become converted into sugar. Fruit under a bell jar in the experiment 

 mentioned above increased in sugar content from 9.98 to 11.51 percent within 23 

 days; Ixit after 49 daj's it had again decreased to 10.4 per cent. 



Cold storage of fruit {Canad. Hort., 25 {1902), No. 10, pp. 404, ^0.5).— The 

 results secured in the cold storage of fruit by Professors Hutt and Reynolds of the 

 Ontario Agricultural College are reported as follows: 



"Apples and pears keep best when wrapped singly in paper and packed in a 

 shallow box not larger than a bushel. They ship best when, in addition, they are 

 packed in layers and excelsior between. Apples keep better at a temperature of 

 31° than at a higher temperature. . . . Cold storage can not make bad fruit good; 

 neither can it keep bad fruit from becoming worse. Only good specimens will keep 

 for any length of time in cold storage and pay for the storage. 



"For long storage it pays to select the best fruit and to pack it in the best manner 

 known. The extra labor and the cost of material are more than repaid in the greater 

 quantity and better quality of fruit left at the end of the storage period. With 

 apples and pears at least, and, it seems likely, for most kinds of fruit, the fruit should 

 be picked and stored in advance of dead ripeness. The maturing process goes on 

 more slowly in cold storage than on the tree or bush." 



Perfect specimens of medium sized apples and pears have been foimd to keep 

 longer than the largest sizes picked at the same time. It is advised, therefore, that 

 with pears and peaches the largest specimens be picked first and the smaller ones 

 left to mature later. 



"Fruit on being removed from cold storage should be allowed to warm gradually, 

 and moisture should not be allowed to deposit upon it. But if the wetting can not 

 be prevented, then the fruit should be spread out and dried as quickly as possible. 

 With all kinds of fruit there is a time limit beyond which it is unprofitable to hold 

 the fruit in cold storage or anywhere else. That limit, for sound fruit, is dead ripe- 

 ness. Duchess pears can be kept profitably until late in December; Fameuse, or 

 Snow, apples, until March or April. The time limit has to be determined for each 

 kind of fruit." 



Tlie relation of color to the killing of peach buds by cold, J. C. Whitten 

 {Inaug. Diss., Univ. Halle, 1902, ppt. 35, jjI. 1) . — The author has investigated the 

 winter temperature and the difference in the rate of transpiration of green and purple 

 fruit buds and branches, and presents some data showing the value of whitewashing 

 fruit trees to retard the swelling of the fruit buds and to maintain a more uniform 

 tree temperature during the winter resting period. Part of the data relating to 

 whitewashing peach trees in Missouri and the temperature of tree twigs have been 

 previously noted (E. S. R., 9, p. 835; 12, p. 643). 



The author found that when the sun shone clearly in the morning whitewashed 

 twigs did not warm up so rapidly as the surrounding air and only gradually reached 

 that condition after noon. In sunshine, green and purjile colored twigs reached a 

 higher temperature than the surrounding air. When the sun was very bright the 

 purple twigs were sometimes as much as 2° warmer than the green twigs. In one 

 experiment on a sunshiny day in February the temperature in a purple colored twig 

 was 10° C. When a black cloth was placed between the sun and the twig the tem- 

 perature fell within 5 minutes to 5|° C. and rose again to 10° within 3 minutes after 

 the cloth was removed. When twigs were blackened they absorbed slightly more 

 heat than purple-colored twigs. 



In order to determine the relative rate of transpiration of green and purple colored 

 twigs, an equal weight of twigs of both colors was gathered and placed in a dry 

 atmosphere in the laboratory in clear sunlight for 4 hours. At the end of that period 

 the twigs were again weighed, when it was found that the purple-colored twigs had 

 transpired fully twice as much water as the green-colored twigs. The experiment 

 was repeated with large branches with practically the same results. 



