-5- 



Fruit Kotes has baen distrilDuted raonthly for a little more 

 tLan 4. years. Beginning v;ith this issue, Voluiae and Kunber v;ill 

 be indicated. The February issue becomes Volume 5, l-umber 2. 

 V/ith a fevr exceptions, back issues of Fruit Jlotes ere not avail- 

 able. 



Soil Temperatures 



V.Taat effect does mulching a tree have on soil teraperature? 

 To ansv/er this question tv/o soil thermographs were set up under 

 tr/o Mcintosh trees in the Clark Orchard v..t the State College, one 

 tree under sod, the other mulched v;ith hay. The thermographs were 

 arranged so as to measure the temperature one foot below the soil 

 surface. 



During last spring the soil under the mulch v/armed up quite 

 a bit more slowly than that under sod. The temperature under sod 

 v/as usually three to four degrees higher than ti:at under the mulch. 

 During last fall the soil under the mulch cool-'^d off a little more 

 slowly, but the difference in temperature betv.'een mulch and sod 

 v.-as not so great as in the spring, usually not more than one or 

 two degrees. 



On January ;-0 the soil temperatures beneath the two trees 

 were aluost identical, 37° P"., the lowest of the year. Notice 

 that the soil temperature at a depth of 12 inches had n.ot yet 

 reached the freezing point in spite of the fact that the air tem- 

 perature has been belov/ zero on three occasions. The lowest air 

 temperature occurred on December L vrhen it dropped to 12° below 

 zero. J. S. Bailey. 



A Note on ControJ.led Atmosphere Storage 



The small room in the apple storage at Massachusetts State 

 College which supposedly was made "gas-tight" last fall, evidently 

 is not tight enough. Although the carbon dioxide lias been kept 

 below 6 percent by intermittent "scrubbing," the oxygen content 

 has been reduced through respiration of the apples to only 13 

 percent. This is far above the 2 percent level that is supposed 

 to be ideal for successful late storage of Mcintosh. In short, 

 in the present atmosphere (13'^ oxygen, 5% carbon dioxide, and 82^ 

 nitrogen) the apples are ripening too fast. 



Tv/o clues which help to explain the failure of tliis room 

 to behave as expected are these. There probably is a leak (or 

 leaks) permitting outside aj.r to enter thereby/ automatically 

 maintaining the relatively high oxygen level. In our experiments 

 witii small, tight containers, the apples have exhausted the oxj'gen 

 within 10 days. The second clue concerns the capacity of the 

 room in relation to the amount of fruit therein. \Tnereas such 

 a room should be filled to capacity, in this case it is less than 

 two-thirds full. This may account in part for the unexpected re- 

 sults to date. J. K. Shaw. 



The Apple Storage Situation 



If we could build a horse-high, pig-tight, bull-strong 

 fence aro\ind the Nev; England marketing area and keep all that 



