MARKET PREPARATION, TRANSPORTATION, STORAGE 263 



extracted by placing the grapes in a muslin bag and squeezing 

 the mass with the fingers. The liquid is poured into a glass 

 cylinder into which an instrument called a Balling sacchari- 

 meter is introduced. It is necessary to have enough grape 

 juice to float the saccharimeter. The instrument records the 

 percentage of sugar in the juice; for example, if 25 per 

 cent of the weight of the solution is sugar, the reading 

 is 25. The amount of sugar does not need to be so high 

 for table as for raisin grapes. The fruit is suitable for table 

 use when it contains 16 or 17 per cent of sugar. It is not 

 suitable for raisins until this percentage has risen to 24 or 

 25 or higher. 



With oranges also there is a standard test for ripeness. 

 In this case two factors must be taken into account. The 

 first is the percentage of solids (principally sugar) dissolved 

 in the juice of the fruit. The second is the percentage of acid 

 in the juice. The standard depends on the ratio between these 

 two percentages. An orange is considered ripe according to 

 this test when there are eight parts of soluble solids in the 

 juice to one part of acid. This is the so-called 8 to 1 test. 

 It is probable that in the future tests will be devised for many 

 other fruits. Experiments in this field are being conducted at 

 the present time. 



374. Decay. Each year large losses of fruit occur due to 

 decay in transit. This is not merely the natural and unavoid- 

 able decay caused by over-ripeness, but represents largely an 

 unnecessary loss resulting from careless handling. Molds of 

 several kinds, the most common of which is blue-mold or 

 mildew, attack and destroy the fruit. It has been demon- 

 strated that, as long as the skin remains unbroken, the mold 

 cannot gain entrance, but the slightest injury, such as a 

 scratch from the branch of a tree, a bruise in handling, 

 or an abrasion from the finger-nails of the packer or 

 picker, is sufficient to allow the fungus to gain access to 

 the fruit. Once the tissue has been invaded, the entire 



