July, I 913 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



179 



The Cold Storage of Apples* 



J. A. Ruddick, Cold Storage Commissioner, Ottawa 



ANY apple which is ripe enough to show 

 signs of softening is past the stage for 

 successful cold storage treatment. Any 

 decay in the formof rots, especially the 

 ordinary brown or soft rot, will be arrested 

 very little, if arrested at all. Take the North- 

 ern Spy for instance. Well-developed speci- 

 mens with sound skins, and put away in 

 time, will keep with the best, but at the 

 same time this variety is also very suscept- 

 ible to rots if the skin is broken or injured 

 in any way, and for this reason it frequent- 

 ly does not keep well in cold storage. 



KEEPING QUAUTIES 



Apples which are well matured on the 

 trees, but still firm, will keep better and 

 longer than if picked at an earlier stage. 

 Well-matured apples show less tendency to 

 scald. This is very marked in the case of 

 the Greening. In tests which the Depart- 

 ment made in 1909-10 apples of this variety 

 picked rather early at a certain date, 

 scalded badly in cold storage, while others 

 from the same tree picked three weeks later 

 were almost free of this rather serious de- 

 fect. If the Greening has reached the 

 stage when it shows a faint blush there is 

 not apt to be much scalding. A good color 

 seems to be a great protection against 

 scalding in all varieties. Late varieties 

 of apples which are grown in localities 

 where the season is longest and where they 

 reach the greatest maturity on the trees, 

 are the ones which will give the best results 

 in cold storage. This is all the more im- 

 portant, when considered along with the 

 well-known fact that under what may still 

 be termed as normal conditions of handling 

 the apples grown in these localities are not, 

 noted for good keeping qualities. The same 

 thing applies in general to a season like 

 1911, when the crop matured early on ac- 

 count of the hot weather. There are very 

 general complaints about the poor keeping 

 of apples this winter, and yet the 1911 crop 

 possessed the very qualities which would 

 have given good results in cold storage, 

 providing the storing had not been too long 

 delayed after picking, as was the case with 

 some that I have heard of. 



I believe that the repacking of barrelled 

 apples, which is now so generally practised 

 in the frost-proof warehouses in Ontario 

 and Nova Scotia, could be dispensed with if 

 the apples were sent promptly to cold stor- 

 age. In 1909 the Dairy and Cold Storage 

 Branch made some trial shipments to test 

 this matter. A car load of Spies and Bald- 

 wins were divided, one lot being put in a 

 frost-proof warehouse and the other sent to 

 cold storage at St. John, N. B. The first 

 lot was repacked, but the cold storage lot 

 was shipped without repacking. Both lots 

 were sold together in Glasgow in the month 

 of March. After paying the cold storage 

 rates we found that the cold storage lot 

 netted us from ten to seventy cents a barrel 

 more than the others. 



There were both number one and number 

 two apples in these lots, and it is interest- 

 ing to note that the number one apples 

 gave the greatest gain in cold storage. Full 

 particulars of these trial shipments will be 

 found in bulletin number two of the Dairy 

 and Cold Storage Series. It may be of in- 

 terest to add that one box of Spies from 

 the cold storage lot was held for eighteen 

 months. The quality was well preserved 

 and the apples stood up well after being re- 

 moved to an ordinary^;oom_tempera ture. 



^^ra^from a paper read at the Dominion 



Fruit Conferenc* in Ottawa. 



This box was , held for the first six months 

 at thirty-two degrees, and after that at 

 thirty. The latter is the best temperature, 

 but of course it is very near the danger 

 line, and great care has to be taken at such 

 an extreme low temperature to prevent 

 some part of the storage room from reach- 

 ing the freezing point of the apples. 



There is considerable difference in the 

 behavior of different varieties of apples in 

 cold storage. This phase of the subject 

 offers a field for further investigation and 

 study. 



STORAGE OF PEARS 



With respect to other fruits, the pear pro- 

 bably is the one which is best adapted for 

 successful handling in cold storage. Some 

 varieties may be carried for several months 

 in perfectly satisfactory condition. Many 

 growers in the Hudson River Valley store 

 a large part of their crops and market them 

 in New York for the Christmas trade. The 

 total quantity of pears carried in cold stor- 

 age for several months every year in the 

 United States is said to be nearly half a 

 million bushels. 



I am of the opinion that the season for 

 special varieties of grapes might easily be 

 extended very considerably with proper 

 management. We have not had an oppor- 

 tunity to acquire much data in this connec- 

 tion, but in the fall of 1910 some twenty- 

 five commercial baskets of "Wilder" and 

 "Vergennes" were sent to the London cold 

 storage and held at about thirty-four de- 

 grees. I had some of these grapes sent to 

 Ottawa on March 8th and they were in very 

 fair condition. 



I hope sometime to be able to secure faci- 

 lities that will enable me to study the mat- 

 ter of grape and other fruit storage more 

 carefully, because I feel that we have much 

 to learn as to the most suitable tempera- 

 tures, style of packing, and other conditions 

 of storage. It may not be out of place to 

 say that opinion has changed with respect 

 to the most suitable temperatures for carry- 

 ing fruit, and it is now pretty well estab- 

 lished that the lowest possible temperature 

 without freezing will give the best results, 

 and that a difference of one or two degrees 

 will have a noticeable effect on the length 

 of time that fruit will be preserved. 



The actual freezing temperature of fruits 

 will depend largely on the percentage of 

 sugar in the juices. I do not think any 

 apples will freeze at thirty, but how much 

 lower some varieties might be safely carried 

 I am unable to say. Australian exjierts say 

 that pears will keep best at iwenty-nme to 

 thirty degrees, and that grapes grown in 

 that country will stand even lower temper- 

 ature because of a higher percentage of 

 sugar. I think it is likely, however, that 

 Australian grapes contain much more sugar 

 than those grown in Canada do, because of 

 the hotter climate in that country. 



There is another side to the question of 

 cold storage, and that is the commercial 

 one, as to how far the cost of cold storage 

 will be balanced by increased returns in 

 the sale of the fruit. This will have to bo 

 determined very largely by practical experi- 

 ence. I do not believe for a moment that 

 it is necessary or desirable to provide cold 

 storage for the whole of the Canadian apple 

 crop. I have indicated some of the special 

 ways in which it may be of great service. 

 I believe that it would pay to refrigerate a 

 large proportion of the so-called frost-proof 

 warehouses now in use in Ontario and in 

 Nova Scotia. This could be done at com- 



Quick and Easy 



That is the way the DAISY APPLE 

 BOX PRESS works. A simple press- 

 ure of the foot brings the arms up over the ends 

 of the box, automatically draws them down and 

 holds them in place while being nailed. The 

 fastest and only automatic press on the market. 



Pat. No. 104,535 

 If you pack apples in boxes, this machine 

 will be a great convenience to you and will 

 save you time and money. Write for prices to 



J. J. ROBLIN & SON 



Manufacturers Brighton, Ontario 



$2.50 per Gallon; $1.00 per Quart. 

 Dupuy A Ferguson, Montreal, Can. 



