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Delicious. Further study to ascertain why the several components of the un- 

 loading machine cause differences in the amount of damage between varieties 

 is desirable, 



"Stem punctures were not serious at any point for Golden Delicious apples. 

 The quantity of stem punctures for Mcintosh, after removal from the boxes, was 

 relatively low for this variety; it was approximately doubled by passage over 

 the conveyor, and then almost doubled again through the drier, 



"The percentages of bruised apples in Table I may appear to be large; how- 

 ever, the percentage of apples showing serious bruising is relatively small. 

 The amount of bruising incurred using this water unloader is only a small 

 fraction of the bruising that occurs in a tilting type bulk box dumper." 



—William J, Lord 



Editor's Comments - The bruise criteria used by Pflug and Dewey is similar to 

 that found in the Apple Sorters' Manual used by Massachusetts growers. The 

 data presented show that further work is necessary in the development of a 

 satisfactory unloading device for apples. In personal correspondence with Pflug, 

 he stated that both the conveyor and the drier need to be improved and last fall 

 the conveyor was rebuilt and a new drier is now being used. 



Reversion of Delicious Red Sports 



An interesting report by Brown and Hesse of California discusses the rever- 

 sion of red sports of Delicious back to the parent Delicious type. The reversion 

 may Involve isolated spurs, small branch units, scaffold limbs or entire trees. 

 As much as 20 per cent of the entire crop may be affected. While they found that 

 both Starking and Richared sports reverted, the Starking sport showed a much 

 higher incidence of reversion than did Richared. Reversion was more serious with 

 Starking which is striped sport, as the reverted fruits have more pronounced 

 striping than reverted fruits of Richared which is a solid red sport. Since re- 

 versions of Richared were found much less frequently than Starking reversions 

 the authors believe that Richared is the more stable sport. 



One extreme example of reversion was found on a Starking limb which pro- 

 duced fruits with no red color. These fruits are truly "Yellow Delicious". 

 Fortunately, such extreme reversions are rare. It is possible that climatic 

 conditions in California are favorable to reversion of color sports of Delicious. 



We have not been aware of frequent or severe cases of reversion of color 

 sports of Delicious in Massachusetts. We probably have more Richared than 

 Starking trees which may account for fewer cases of reversion or our climate may 

 not be conducive to reversion. 



While we do not have any direct evidence on the incidence of reversion of 

 Starking or Richared in Massachusetts, it might be wise to play it safe and 

 plant only Richared and sports of Richared which has less chance of reverting 



