REPORT OF CRANBERRY SUBSTATION FOR 1916. 193 



Dr. Shear has recently published a valuable paper ^ on the false blossom 

 disease that does so much harm in Wisconsin and has heretofore been 

 reported ^ as having been introduced into Massachusetts and New Jersey. 



Storage Tests. 



The description of all these experiments that seemed to give results of 

 much interest are arranged in the groups listed below. Those in group 

 No. 1 were planned by the writer and conducted by Prof. F. W. Morse, 

 research chemist of the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. 

 Group No. 2 was planned and carried out by Dr. N. E. Stevens. Nos. 4, 

 6 (c), 7, 10 and 13 were planned and conducted by the writer. Nos. 3, 5, 

 6 (a) and (b), 8 and 11 were planned by Drs. Shear and Stevens, and were 

 carried out by them co-operatively with the writer. No. 12 was planned 

 and conducted co-operatively by Dr. Stevens and the writer. 



Some of the tests were conducted with berries in quart cans, with covers 

 on tight but not sealed, and others with fruit in bushel picking crates 

 stored in carefully arranged stacks. A comparison of the percentages of 

 decay found in the crates and the cans shows strikingly the harmful effect 

 of the lack of ventilation in the latter, this being so great that it perhaps 

 invalidates the results of the can tests. 



In all the tests, except those of groups 1, 2, 9, 11 and 13, the fruit was 

 examined by cup samples by the screeners employed at the station during 

 the fall, under the WTiter's supervision, the inspector's cup of the New 

 England Cranberry Sales Company being used for sampling. The Sales 

 Company's hand grader was used to facilitate the work. All the berries 

 stored in cans were included in samples and examined. 



The "nine-sample" method was largely used in examining the crates. 

 In this method nine samples from each crate were counted, one being taken 

 from the top or surface berries at each end; one from the surface berries 

 at the middle; one from the berries halfway between the top and bottom 

 at each end; one from the very center; one from the very bottom^ at each 

 end; and one from the bottom at the middle. 



The "seven-sample" method was used in examining some of the crated 

 berries, and the writer thinks this method is as satisfactory as any likely 

 to be devised for determining the condition of berries thus stored, consid- 

 erable defects in the other methods so far employed having been discovered. 

 In this method seven samples from each crate were examined, one being 

 taken from the surface berries of each half of the crate halfway between the 

 middle and the end; one from each half of the crate halfway between the 

 top and the bottom and halfway between the center and the end; one 

 from the very center; and one from the very bottom of each half of the 

 crate halfway between the middle and end. 



All the tests except those of the first, second, eleventh and thirteenth 



» False Blossom of the Cultivated Cranberry, Bui. No. 444, U. S. Dept. Agr., November, 1916. 

 « Bui. No. 160, Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta., 1915, pp. 99 and 100, and Bui. No. 168, Mass. Agr. Expt. 

 Sta., 1916, p. 5. 



