BULLETI:N^ ^o. 172. 



DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY. 



EXPERIMENTS IN KEEPING ASPARAGUS 

 AFTER CUTTING. 



BY F. W. MOESE. 



The object of this experiment was to determine some of the changes 

 which take place in asparagus from the time when it is cut in the field 

 until it is ready to be cooked. This period varies from a few hours to 

 several days, and during it there is seldom any care taken to preserve 

 the asparagus stalks in a fresh, crisp condition. Sometimes the stalks 

 are kept with their butts in water; but this is not a general practice 

 among the dealers in this vegetable. 



Fruits and vegetables are living things and life is maintained by respira- 

 tion, which requires a supply of food just as with animals. When animals 

 fast they lose weight because their body material is used in respiration. 

 When vegetables and fruits are removed from the plants on which they 

 grew they steadily lose in weight because of respiration, and their chemical 

 composition continually changes. 



Experiments with apples ^ have clearly shown that after the fruit is 

 picked from the tree respiration is maintained by which carbon dioxide 

 and water are continually exhaled, while analysis has proved that sugar 

 steadily diminishes and the fruit loses in weight. It was found, too, that 

 low temperatures slowed down the respiration while high ones speeded it 

 up, and that retarding respiration was an important factor in the preserva- 

 tion of fresh fruits. 



Besides investigating the nature of the change in asparagus after it has 

 been cut from the plant, the effects of high and low temperatures on the 

 rate of change have been studied as an important part of the experiment. 



The following table ^ gives the average composition of asparagus stalks 

 when prepared for analysis as soon as practicable after they were cut 

 from the plants: — 



Table I. 



Composition of Asparagus Stalks when Fresh {Per Cent.). 



Water, 92.30 



Dry matter, . . . . . . . . .7.70 



> F. W. Morse: The Respiration of Apples and its Relation to their Keeping. Bui. 135, N. H. 

 Agr. Expt. Sta., 1908, 8 pp. 



2 Bui. 171, Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta., p. 274. 



