ANNUAL REPORT, 1934 59 



growth than the average ornamental crop or, at least, they are very sensitive to 

 any condition that may tend to reduce the amount of available iron in the soil. 



Propagation Studies on Gardenias. (Harold E. White, Waltham.) Work on 

 this project has been delayed due to the fact that repairs on the greenhouse were 

 not completed in time to permit propagation work to start on the date specified. 



Study of the Effect of Plant Nutrients on Carnations Under Glass. (Harold 

 E. White, Waltham.) This investigation has been completed and the results will 

 soon be brought together for publication. 



DEPARTMENT OF HORTICULTURAL MANUFACTURES 

 W. W. Chenoweth in Charge 



Technological and Nutritional Investigations of New England Apples. (C. R. 

 Fellers, J. A. Clague and P. D. Isham.) Studies were continued on ten varieties 

 of apples for cider making qualities. Blends made from combinations of the 

 varieties were compared with the straight ciders. 



A comparison of methods of clarification and filtration showed that the enzymic 

 clarification with Pectinol was the simplest and most effective for general use. 

 The gelatin-tannin treatment produced a clear cider, but removed much of the 

 original color. The filter developed at the Michigan Agricultural Experiment 

 Station was tried out and found to be an inexpensive, simple and satisfactory 

 means of filtering the cider. 



Preservation of cider may be successfully accomplished by pasteurization, by 

 filtration through asbestos and germ-proof filter or by chemical preservatives 

 such as sodium benzoate. Pasteurization, if carefully controlled, is probably 

 the best method for the small manufacturer to use for filtered cider. Some pre- 

 liminary work was done with the electro-silver ionic method of preservation with 

 not very encouraging results. The manufacture and sale of cider affords a very 

 effective outlet for the cull apples of Massachusetts. Now that a simple method 

 of clarification has been developed, clarified cider should create a demand for this 

 product from those people who objected to the "muddy" appearance of the 

 unclarified juice. 



Twenty-one varieties of Massachusetts-grown apples have been assayed for 

 vitamin C content during the past two years. These results are presented in a 

 paper in the Proceedings of the American Society for Horticultural Science, Volume 

 31, 1934, and briefly in the Annual Report of the Massachusetts Fruits Growers' 

 Association for 1934. There is no apparent correlation between vitamin C con- 

 tent of an apple variety and the chromosome number of that variety. Seasonal 

 or other variation except storage caused little change in vitamin C content in 

 the same variety. The varieties richest in vitamin C are Baldwin, Northern Spy, 

 Ben Davis and Winesap. 



When apples were made into apple pie less than 20 percent of the vitamin C 

 was retained. On the other hand, baked apples retained from 80 to 90 percent 

 of their original vitamin C. Sulfured evaporated apples lost approximately 65 

 percent of their vitamin C content. 



Cranberry Products. (C. R. Fellers, J. A. Clague and P. D. Isham.) A paper 

 on the relation of benzoic acid content and other constituents of cranberries to 

 keeping quality was published in Plant Physiology 9:631-636 (1934). The mean 



