10 STATION BULLETIN 356 



treatment hastened maturity. Cutting with an ax caused some loss, 

 but not as much as bruising There was considerable loss from frost- 

 ing, partly by admitting disease and partly by physical damage to 

 the fruit, which caused cracking and dying and made it unmarketable. 

 The general effect was much the same as bruising with a smooth 

 board. The immature squashes kept well, but because of their im- 

 maturity were not what would be classed as marketable scpiash at the 

 time the storage experiment was completed on Februar}- 7. 



Table 5. — Losses in Storage, September 22, 1944, to February 7, 1945 



Temperature 50°-60°F. ..Humidity 2U-30 Per cent 



Treatments Percentage Removed 



Diseased All causes 



1. Field to storage - short stems 



2. Field to storage - long stems 



3. Field to storage - Formaldehyde dip* 



4. Field piled 14 days 



5. Field piled 14 days, then dipped in Formaldehyde 



6. Greenhouse piled 14 days, then to storage 



7. Field to storage -|- cut with ax 



8. Field to storage -\- bruised with l^oard 



9. Frosted in field before storage 

 10. Immature 



*Two per cent concentration 

 Short stems in all cases except where indicated 



The Effect of Apples 



Another test conducted this year was to determine whether early 

 yellowing of the S(|uash in previous years, when stored in the apple- 

 receiving room, might be due to gas from the apples. To determine 

 this, several squash were placed in a closed box in the storage with 

 half a bushel of ripe apples. An equal number were placed in a sim- 

 ilar box, but without apples. The ones associated with ap])les turned 

 yellow within four weeks, the others did not. Following this, a test 

 was made to see if Ethylene gas might produce this result. Re- 

 leasing Ethylene in a barrel with green scjuash in Januar}- produced 

 no visible effect. It seems, therefore, that scptash after that length 

 of storage were not susceptible to the treatment or else some other 

 respiration product of apples is the cause. 



Field Observations 



While controlled conditions offer much the best source of re- 

 liable information, observations made elsewhere deserve mention. 



During the three years many trips were made to home and com- 

 mercial storages to inspect squash and to check conditions. The 

 large storage of the Merrimack Farmers" Exchange at Derry w^as 

 particularly good for our purpose because squash there were brought 

 in by many growers whose conditions of cidture, seed, and handling 

 methods differed from each other. 



This offered an opportimity to check variotis factors. Whether 

 field piling was detrimental as experiments indicated was one of these. 



