STATION BULLETIN 356 



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Fig. 1. — Squash piled for preliminary curing, 

 a common but detrimental practice. 



late set. All of them were harvested on September 20. Twenty-five 

 squashes were used in each treatment. Since it was the custom for 

 squash growers in New Hampshire to pile their squashes in the field 

 for two weeks covered with vines to cure before moving to storage 

 (Figure 1), this treatment was used for most of those harvested in 

 1942 and was the standard treatment. Some lots were moved direct- 

 ly from the field to storage without field piling and one lot was put 

 into the greenhouse at harvest time for two weeks' curing before be- 

 ing moved to the permanent storage. One lot of squash was taken 

 from vines which had been dusted with C.O.C.S.*. Other squashes 

 Avere treated with fungicides after harvesting and just before being 

 placed in storage. Some squash taken directly from the field and 

 some that were piled were bruised with the butt of a nailing hatchet. 

 The bruises were deep enough to be seen, but not deep enough to 

 sink the head of the nailing hatchet into the fruit. Squash were also 

 stored in several places, the principal place being the apple-receiving 

 room where the grading of the apples for storage is done. Some were 

 stored in the regular apple cold storage room ; others were stored in 

 a modified atmosphere apple storage where the CO2 content was in- 

 creased to about 11 per cent and the oxygen content was maintained 

 at about the same level. Another lot was stored in a potato cellar. 

 The tabulated results in Table 1 show the percentage of squash which 

 spoiled at each period of examination. 



1942-1943 Results ' 



The data in Table 1, while not conclusive, do show a few signifi- 

 cant points. The squash taken directly from the field, instead of be- 

 ing field-piled, kept much better. Those which were greenhouse- 

 cured also seemed to keep better than the others. Those which were 

 well-matured, but not over mature, kept a little better than the im- 



*Copper Oxychloride Sulphate 



