16 



EXPERIMENTS ON PROCESSING PERSIMMONS. 



Experiment 6. This experiment was begun before the results of 

 experiment 5 were known. The variety Taber's 23 was used. Car- 

 bon dioxid was employed as in experiment 5, the five desiccators 

 containing 0, 5, 10, 15, and 25 cc of alcohol, respectively. A sixth 

 desiccator was charged with 15 cc of alcohol, and 400 grams of oven- 

 dried starch were added to reduce the humidity. The air in each 

 desiccator was displaced by carbon dioxid as in experiment 5. The 

 desiccators were opened on October 22, after three days. All fruits, 

 including the specimens in the check lot, had remained firm. All 

 of the fruits in the desiccators were nonastringent. They suffered 

 practically no changes in weight during the three days except in the 

 case of the fruit in the desiccator containing starch. Here the loss 

 was 48 grams, or 2.45 per cent, while the check lot lost 44 grams, 

 or 2.55 per cent. The following table shows the losses in weight of 

 the different lots of fruits used in this experiment : 



Loss of weight of fruit used in experiment 6. 



1 These lots apparently gained in weight by 3 and 9 grams, respectively. 



None of the fruits cracked, and therefore no advantage was shown 

 in the use of starch to reduce humidity. The most highly colored 

 specimens in the controls were very astringent. A few of the fruits 

 in the desiccator in which 25 cc of alcohol were used showed browned 

 areas on the epidermis, probably due to the alcohol. 



Experiment 7. The Tsuru variety was processed, using carbon 

 dioxid and varying amounts of alcohol as in experiments 5 and 6. 

 This experiment was begun on October 19, and the desiccators were 

 opened three days later. Seventy-two fruits were used in all, divided 

 into six lots of 12 fruits each. In lots A, C, and E 400 grams of 

 dried starch was placed as in experiment 6. The following results 

 were recorded when the persimmons were examined on October 22 : 



Lot A. The fruit was kept in carbon dioxid without alcohol. All 

 fruits were firm, and a well-colored specimen contained tannin, the 

 " pucker" being apparent a moment after tasting and becoming very 

 marked. The fruit was nearly processed, as samples of the same 

 color in the check lot instantly showed the presence of much soluble 

 tannin, but the change was not quite complete. 



