-5- 



finiit huld in a refrigerated storage, A study in lichigan published in 1930 by 

 R, E, Marshall indicated that about 75 percent of the water core present in 

 Delicious at harvest disappeared after 11 weeks in cold storage. 



However, it should be remembered that severe water core may not disappear, 

 no matter how the fruit is stored. Also, fniit that has had this disorder is 

 much more subject to internal breakdovm in storage even after the vrater core has 

 disappeared. Hence^ it seems to us that if your Delicious vrere suffering from a 

 cor.siderable amount of water core at harvest time that the fruit be disposed of 

 fairly early in the marketing season, Tfe suggest that storage operators check 

 their holdings of Delicious regularly (large apples especially) so that serious 

 development of internal breakdown in this variety does not occur prior to sale. 

 It would be desirable to observe fruit after it has been held a week at room 

 temperature rather than to limit your observations to fruit under refrigeration, 



F. W. Southfdck 



////////////////// 



HOYf CONSTOERS BUY APPLES 



Mohigan State University has recently issued a bulletin entitled "Consumer 

 Purchases of Apples in 1953" by J, D, Shaffer and G. G. Quackenbush, The follow- 

 ing interesting information is found in the summary and conclusions. 



1, The U, S consumption of apples has been declining at the rate of about 



1 pound per person per year since 1920, based upon a straight trend line, 



2, In 1953, panel families' purchases of fresh apples amounted to about l6 

 percent of their expenditures for fresh fruits and about 8 percent of the 

 total spent for fresh fruits and vegetables together. Apples v/ere third 

 in dollar volume among the fresh fruits and vegetables j only bananas and 

 potatoes received greater expenditures, 



3, Apple sales are highly seasonal. For the 1953-195U crop year, over 20 per- 

 cent of the apples purchased during the year were bought during Octoberj 

 about 50 percent were bought during the 12 vireeks starting September 6o 



U, During the year, 35 percent of the apples were purchased in units of 5 

 pounds or less« Less than 8 percent v/ere bought in 6-pound units. Almost 

 50 percent of the apples vrere purchased in units larger than 10 pounds. 

 Since the typical retail grocer seldom handles units over 10 pounds, this 

 indicates that a large portion of the apples are retailed through other 

 channels , 



5. There is an important seasonal difference in both the average size of 

 purchase and the distribution of size of apple purchase, indicating that 

 the optimum size of pre-packaged units varies during the season. Similarly, 

 the fact that larger families tend to buy in large quantities per purchase 

 indicates that a variety of package sizes to meet the needs of different 

 families should be made available for maximum total sales. 



