66 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



cider and perry, of controlling fermentation, and of blending 

 have been closely studied, with the result that, so far as seasonal 

 influence permits, it is now possible to produce with reasonable 

 regularity and uniformity any standard type of cider and perry 

 desired. The various disorders to which these beverages are 

 liable have been investigated, and in most cases methods of 

 prevention have been discovered. 



Fncit and Vegetable Preservation and Storage. 

 We may now consider what is being done to ensure that the 

 final product of the fruit-grower is used to the best advantage ; 

 and here the problems with which a Research Institute is faced 

 relate mainly to the storing of the fruit, so that it may be put on 

 the market — either in its fresh form or as jam or other preserve 

 — when there is no glut and consequent reduction in price. At 

 present the grower is at the mercy of the market, and continually 

 runs the risk of a sudden fall in prices, which may make all the 

 difference between profit and loss on the year's labours. A few 

 years' patient research in the laboratory — the expenditure of a 

 few hundred pounds in salaries and apparatus — would surely be 

 amply justified if as the result the grower could withhold his 

 fruit from a glutted market, and send it out later on when prices 

 would bring him a profit instead of a loss. The problem — 

 how to prevent an apple from rotting — is less simple than it 

 a]^pears. The foundation of future work must be laid in an 

 accurate knowledge of the chemistry of the apple, and of the 

 gradual changes that take place within the fruit during the 

 ripening period. Unfortunately our knowledge on this subject 

 at present is very meagre, and limits not only the investigation 

 of methods of storage but research into apple diseases, cider- 

 making processes, &c. It is beyond the scope of this book to 

 record the abstruse chemical examination of the apple now in 

 progress at the Long Ashton Institute, but a few remarks may not 

 be out of place as showing the stage which the work has reached 

 in one direction. Broadly speaking, the changes occurring in 

 the fruit during ripening, and leading up to the rotting of the fruit, 

 are very marked in the case of the group of jeUy-forming com- 

 pounds known as pectins. The unripe fruit contains a pectin 

 compound in an insoluble form ; during ripening it is converted 

 by stages into pectin which is soluble. This change is an impor- 

 tant feature of the ripening process, and it is necessary to hinder 

 or delay the conversion of the insoluble pectin compound into 

 the soluble pectin in order to delay ripening, and therefore 

 rotting. Clearly, therefore, one object of research is to discover 

 accurate methods of finding out the stage to which this con- 



