320 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



cells break down and the apple is rotten. 

 While these changes are due to different 

 agents as chemical action and growth oi 

 microbes, the process is quite gradual. A 

 peach is picked when still hard, but in a 

 temperature of 50 degrees F. or above, soon 

 becomes soft and in a few days is reduced to 

 a mushy mass of pulp. If picked when ripe 

 and beginning to soften, the life of the fruit 

 is therefore relatively shorter than if picked 

 when just mature. In winter fruits the 

 ripening (mellowing) process goes on slower 

 than in the summer varieties. 



point, germs of fermentation or decay wil 

 not develop and the fruit will remain in an 

 inactive condition ; in other words, the 

 ripening process which precedes the decay- 

 ing process does not go on. On this princ- 

 iple is founded the practice of placing fruits 

 in cold storage. 



All farmers and fruit growers cannot 

 afford to erect elaborate storing houses, but 

 it will pay most fruit growers to put up 

 storage houses in which their perishable 

 fruits may be safely stored at times when 

 the market presents unfavorable selling 



Fig. 21 19. Sorting and Packing in the Orchard. 



The decay of fruits is due to certain fer- 

 ments, chemical agents and niicro-o>ganisms 

 which develop under favorable conditions of 

 temperature. — The ordinary keeping season 

 of fruit may be much prolonged by storing 

 it in a compartment in which a low tempera- 

 ture may be preserved. The germs which 

 may bring about the decay of fruits like 

 those which change grape juice from the 

 sweet stage to the alcoholic, can only 

 develop when the temperature is consider- 

 ably above freezing. It follows, therefore, 

 that if fruit is stored in a chamber where the 

 temperature can be kept near the freezing 



opportunities. When fruit growers are en- 

 tirely without store houses they are prac- 

 tically at the mercy of the buyer and the 

 fluctuating market prices. It was due to 

 this fact that much of the 1900 apple crop of 

 Western New York was sold at low If not 

 unremuneratlve rates. 



Bruises shorten the keeping season of fruit. 

 — Fruit pickers seldom realize how much 

 the normal keeping season of a fruit Is 

 shortened by bruises due to careless, indiffer- 

 ent handling. When the flesh of an apple 

 Is bruised, the cells are crushed, the juices 

 are liberated and ferments giving rise to 



