90 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 388 



Jersey. Large, attractive berries make this look like a good variety. The 

 bush is vigorous and yields well. Flavor is excellent if the berries are allowed to 

 ripen well on the bush but very sour if picked a day or two too soon. 



June. This variety has improved in growth since the soil was drained, but 

 growth is still weak in comparison with other varieties. Since it is earlier than 

 Cabot, it might have a place for home garden use or roadside stand trade. 



Pemberton. This variety continues to look promising because of large size 

 and attractiveness of berries and good yield. Fruit has excellent flavor but the 

 scar is large. There was very little cracking after rainy periods. 



Scammell. This variety is probably not adapted to this climate. Leaves are 

 small and growth is not vigorous. Berries are large during first of season but late 

 berries are small. Flavor is good. Berries are firm but they cracked after rainy 

 periods. 



Stanley. The performance of this variety was disappointing this year. Growth 

 was poor and yield very light. 



Wareham. Berry size was unusually large this year — 90 per cup at the start 

 of the season — and held up well. It has a distinctive wild blueberry flavor that 

 some people like. The bush is open and the fruit clusters are small and open, 

 making picking easy. The scar is small. It yields well, but the dark-colored 

 fruit lacks attractiveness. This year it became soft and cracked very badly after 

 rains, and kept poorly in storage. 



Fruit Bud Formation in tlie Strawberry. (R. A. Van Meter.) DifTerential 

 mulching experiments brought this study to an end with the harvesting of the 

 1941 crop. Results are now being summarized. 



Nature of Winter Hardiness in tlie Raspberry. (R. A. Van Meter and A. P. 

 French.) One of the serious difficulties of the raspberry grower in Massachusetts 

 is winter injury to the canes and buds. The occurrence is erratic and unpre- 

 dictable. Little seems to be known about the causal conditions. A study will 

 be made of the rest period, vegetative condition, and chemical composition of 

 the plants in their relations to winter injury. Several seasons' work are likely 

 to be necessary before definite results can be reported. 



Storage of Apples in Modified Atmospheres. (L. Southwick and O. C. Roberts 

 in cooperation with Department of Engineering.) Experiments with 40-quart 

 milk cans as gas-tight containers were continued. Attempts were made to main- 

 tain definite atmospheres in the cans by daily flushing with nitrogen, by taking 

 out excess carbon dioxide, and by controlling ventilation. The cans were filled 

 on December 2, 1940, with about 35 pounds of rather mature, wrapped Mcintosh 

 apples and sealed immediately. These apples at 40° F. generated carbon dioxide 

 at the approximate rate of 2.5 milligrams per hour per kilogram of fruit. Where a 

 sodium hydroxide scrubber was used to wash out the accumulations of carbon 

 dioxide, the oxygen in the cans was reduced to below 3 percent in 8 to 10 days. 

 Complete oxygen depletion was greatly hastened when cans were flushed with 

 nitrogen every day or two. 



It was difficult to maintain the desired constant atmospheres in these cans 

 by the methods employed. Since the apples occupied as much as 50 percent of 

 the total space in the cans, respiratory activity itself caused rather abrupt changes 

 in the composition of the atmosphere. Furthermore, a very brief washing period 

 reduced the carbon dioxide content to practically zero. The carbon dioxide in- 

 creased to an average of 10 percent in the cans between scrubbings. Oxygen 

 percentages varied much less widely around the desired 2 percent level. It was 

 somewhat difficult to keep the oxygen level sufficiently high to prevent anaerobic 



