260 Report or THE HorriCULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 
Storage men emphasize and reiterate the point that cold storage 
can only be successful when fruit is handled very carefully— 
more carefully than fruit is now often handled. At the same time 
it is important that only No. 1 fruit be stored. Not only is there 
little profit in storing No. 2 fruit, but when it goes on the market 
it hurts the sale of No. 1 fruit. 
The seasons given in this bulletin for the different varieties are 
for fruit carefully picked, packed and otherwise handled accord- 
ing to the most approved methods. 
Certain differences in the management which the trees receive 
result in corresponding differences in the keeping quality of the 
fruit. For example, apples grown in sod attain to a higher color 
and keep longer than those grown under clean culture. 
The soil on which the tree grows makes a difference with the 
keeping quality of the fruit. Baldwins grown on sandy or 
gravelly soil ripen earlier and must be picked earlier and do not 
keep so well as those on clay soils, although they have a higher 
color. 
The presence of fungi is liable to shorten the life of fruit. 
Fameuse and many other varieties when affected by scab keep 
very poorly in storage. Fruit affected by certain other fungi 
keeps well until it reaches a certain stage of ripeness and then 
goes down quickly. Beckwith finds that if Baldwins are very 
badly affected by fungus, they hold longest in cold storage if 
picked quite green. Fruit affected with fungus keeps best in 
a cold dry atmosphere. This point was clearly brought out by 
experience in 1902. 
But except for retarding the development of fungus, apples 
keep best with considerable moisture in the air. Such is the 
opinion of many storage men, among them Hoag and Beckwith. 
Hoag remarks that Roxburys, especially, keep much better if 
they are rather damp. 
In recent years cold storage men have generally come to believe 
that apples should go into storage as soon as picked. With the 
Hubbardston, however, Wilson still believes that it is best to 
let the fruit lie on straw on the ground for two or three weeks 
for the purpose of adding color to the fruit. This can be done, 
