SOME POINTEES ON THE COLD STOEAGE 



OF FEUITS 



MUCH YET TO BE LEARNED — SOME SELECTIONS 

 FROM A PAPER READ BEFORE THE WESTERN NEW 

 YORK HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY LAST JANUARY 



BY 



G. H. POWELL 



OF WASHINGTON 



THERE is still much to be accomp- 

 lished before the eng-ineering of 

 refrigeration will have reached its 

 highest perfection. The relative merits of 

 different systems of cooling, of different 

 refrigerating media, of ventilating systems, 

 a clearer knowledge of the methods of 

 maintaining a desirable degree of humidity, 

 and of a more even distribution of tem- 

 perature most desirable for different fruits ; 

 and for the same fruit in different conditions, 

 or of different varieties of a given fruit ; the 

 influence of sudden versus gradual cooling 

 when fruit is put into storage, and of warm- 

 ing it up when it is removed ; of tight ver- 

 sus closed packages, of the exact tempera- 

 ture at which different fruits will freeze, of 

 the degree of maturity at which fruits should 

 be removed from storage — these are a few 

 of the points on which more exact informa- 

 tion will need to be worked out from the 

 standpoint of the storage men. 



There is little exact information concern- 

 ing the influence of cultural methods, and 

 of various stages through which a fruit 

 passes before it reaches the storage com- 

 partment, or its durability after it once 

 reaches there. It is highly desirable in the 

 interests of both storage men and fruit 

 growers that we know more of the influence 

 of young versus of old trees, of cultivated 

 and well-fed versus uncultivated and starved 

 orchards, of the character of the soil, the 



exposure and altitude of the orchards, of 

 moist versus dry seasons, of the degree of 

 maturity of the fruit, of the length of time 

 that elapsed before the fruit should be stored 

 after picking, and of many other factors that 

 pertain primarily to the orchard, on the 

 storage durability of the fruit, 



I would not convey the impression that 

 the refrigeration of fruits — especially of the 

 apple — is a chaotic condition. On the other 

 hand, the evolution of the system of refrigf- 

 erating plants has been so rapid that mod- 

 ern storage houses carry enormous quanti- 

 ties of apples, of citrous fruits, and of vege- 

 tables for months in a satisfactory condition, 

 and with little loss. I would emphasize the 

 fact, however, that the definite knowledge 

 of many of the phases of the storage ques- 

 tion often leads to important losses in the 

 storage houses, and to serious misunder- 

 standings between storage men and fruit 

 growers. There is a popular misconception 

 among fruit growers that a low temperature 

 will preserve fruits almost indefinitely, and 

 the losses in the storage house are usually 

 attributed to a faulty management of the 

 storage plant itself. As a matter of fact, 

 there are many factors that enter into the 

 making of a fruit with good keeping quali- 

 ties, and these factors operate while the 

 fruit is growing, during the period between 

 the picking of the fruit and its storage, and 

 during the storage period. 



