EDITORIAL NOTES. 



6i 



VI. Uniformity of Maturity and Size. 

 The shipper of fancy stock, who indeed is 

 the successful fruit farmer of the near fu- 

 ture, must not only see that he grows and 

 ships good stock, but in the same package he 

 should have uniformity in size, color and 

 maturity. Whether to some extent this can 

 be more economically done in the picking or 

 only in the packing will be for each indi- 

 vidual to decide, but where a grower is 

 handling his own stock and knows how 

 things should be, we think much can be done 

 in gathering to save after handling. 



Powell, of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, says on this subject of " Cold Stor- 

 age": 



It is not possible to secure a uniform degree 

 of maturity and size when all the apples on a 

 tree are picked at one time, as fruit in different 

 stages of growth is mixed together on the same 

 tree. The apples differ in size and maturity in 

 relation to their position, the upper outer 

 branches producing the large, highly colored 

 and early ripening fruit, while the apples on the 

 side branches and the shaded interior branches 

 ripen later. Greater uniformity in these re- 

 spects is approached by proper pruning and by 

 other cultural methods, but the greatest uni- 

 formity can be attained when, like the peach or 

 the pear, the apple tree is picked over several 

 times, taking the fruit in each picking that ap- 

 proaches the desired standard size and maturity. 



Summer apples, like the Yellow Transparent, 

 Astrachan, and "Williams, are usually picked in 

 this manner, and fall varieties, like Twenty 

 Ounce, Oldenburg, and Wealthy, are sometimes 

 treated similarly. In recent years a few grow- 

 ers of winter apples have adopted the plan for 

 the late varieties, with he result that the size, 

 color and ripeness of a larger proportion of the 

 fruit are more uniform. 



Immediate Storage. The keeping quality 

 of all kinds of fruit is seriously injured by 

 the common methods of handling. Peaches 

 and plums are gathered in baskets and set 

 down for hours in the hot sun before ship- 

 ment ; pears and apples are sometimes left 

 in piles in the orchard, heating and ripening, 

 or held in a warm packing house, with no 

 cool storage to prevent the progress of ri- 

 pening. No wonder, after such conditions 

 previous to shipment, that we should hear 

 much of slacks and wastes in our export 



apple shipments ; or that peaches, plums and 

 pears should reach Winnipeg in a disgrace- 

 ful condition. 



Powell's remarks under this head are also 

 pertinent. He says : 



The removal of an apple from the tree hastens 

 its ripening. As soon as the growth is stopped 

 by picking, the fruit matures more rapidly than 

 it does when growing on the tree and maturing 

 at the same time. The rapidity of ripening in- 

 creases as the temperature rises, and is checked 

 by a low temperature. It appears to vary with 

 the degree of maturity at which the fruit is 

 picked, the less mature apples seeming to reach 

 the end of their life as quickly or even sooner 

 than the more mature fruit. It varies with the 

 conditions of growth, the abnormally large fruit 

 from young trees or fruit which has been over- 

 grown from other causes ripening and deterio- 

 rating very rapidly. It differs with the nature 

 of the variety, those sorts with a short life his- 

 tory, like the summer and fall varieties, or like 

 the early winter apples, such as Rhode Island 

 Greening, Yellow Bellflower, or Grimes Golden, 

 progressing more rapidly than the long-keeping 

 varieties like Roxbury, Swaar, or Baldwin. 



Any condition in the management of the fruit 

 that causes it to ripen after it is picked brings 

 it just so much nearer the end of its life, 

 whether it is stored in common storage or in 

 cold storage, while treatment that checks the 

 ripening to the greatest possible degree pro- 

 longs it. 



The keeping quality of a great deal of fruit is 

 seriously injured by delays between the orchard 

 and the storage house. This is especially true 

 in hot weather and in fruit that comes from sec- 

 tions where the autumn months are usually hot. 

 If the apples are exposed to the sun in piles in 

 the orchard, or are kept in closed buildings 

 where the hot, humid air can not easily be re- 

 moved from the pile, if transportation is de- 

 layed because care for shipment can not be se- 

 cured promptly, or if the fruit is detained in 

 transit or at the terminal point in tight cars 

 which soon become charged with hot moist air 

 the ripening progresses rapidly and the apples 

 may already be near the point of deterioration 

 or may even have commenced to deteriorate 

 from scald, or mellowness, or decay when the 

 storage house is reached. 



On the contrary, the weather may be cool dur- 

 ing a similar period of delay and no serious in- 

 jury result to the keeping quality, or the ripen- 

 ing may be checked in hot weather bq shipping 

 the fruit in refrigerator cars to a distant stor- 

 age house. 



The fungus diseases of the fruit, such as the 

 apple scab (Fusiciadium dendriticub), and the 

 pink mold (Cephalothecium roseum) which 

 grows upon the scab, the blue mold (Penicillium 

 glaucum) which causes the common, soft, brown 

 rot, the black rot (Sphaeropsis malorum) and the 

 bitter rot (Glaeosporium fructigenum) develop 

 very fast if the fruit becomes heated after pick- 

 ing. The conditions already enumerated which 



