TRANSPORT AND STORAGE OF FOOD 431 
has fitted a ten-thousand-ton vessel, the Arctic Queen, owned by Messrs. 
Hellyer Bros. of Hull, as a floating factory for dealing with that valuable 
fish, the halibut. Brine-freezing is the basis of the enterprise. This great 
vessel is fitted with plant for brine-freezing, and can store at —20° C. no 
less than four thousand tons of halibut at the rate of seventy tons a day. 
In May she goes as far afield as the Davis Straits, off the coast of Greenland, 
where the fish are caught, and at the end of the season, in October, she 
returns to Hull, and there acts as a floating cold store, discharging her fish 
according to the needs of the market. If such a factory ship could transfer 
her fish to cold stores ashore on her return to this country at the end of the 
Greenland season, there are possibilities, which cannot be ignored, of her 
fishing throughout the winter in warmer waters. Up to the present, how- 
ever, there has been no suitable cold storage available ashore, but two stores, 
able to maintain a temperature of — 20° C., have just been constructed at 
Grimsby and Fleetwood. 
In addition to her main task of brine-freezing and storing halibut, the 
Arctic Queen freezes and saits a certain amount of cod, manufactures cod- 
liver oil, and freezes and stores the halibut livers, which yield oil far richer 
medicinally than that of the cod, but which demand a different process of 
extraction, and one not so suitable for operation at sea. She is, therefore, 
truly a floating factory. It is worthy of remark that there are now several 
other factory ships at work on like principles. 
, FRUIT. 
I now pass to fruit, leaving the world of the dead for that of the living. 
Fruit is alive, and must be preserved alive. It cannot be frozen, because 
freezing kills it. 
When Hardy and those associated with him commenced their research 
on fruit, they started in the belief that an intensive study of one fruit would 
reveal facts applicable to all, and the fruit chosen for the first experiments 
was the apple. They realised afterwards that they were far too optimistic, 
for even one type of fruit like the apple reveals idiosyncrasies to the point 
of absurdity. Nevertheless, a concentrated study of a single fruit like the 
apple was undoubtedly wise, and this evening I propose to deal with the 
apple only. 
I suppose that we eat more apples than any other kind of fruit. In 1932 
we imported over 8 million hundredweights of apples, of which Australia 
and New Zealand sent us over 2 million hundredweights, and Canada over 
13 millions. Exactly how many apples are grown in this country I do not 
know, but if we assume that we grow an amount equal to that imported we 
consume about 6,000 million apples every year if we take three to four apples 
to the pound. 
Of oranges we imported over 9 million hundredweights in 1932, and of 
bananas over 17 million bunches. While these latter fruits have been 
studied to some extent and researches are being continued, we have much 
more scientific knowledge of the apple. Moreover, the story of the apple 
is Hardy’s own story, and it is so full of interest, and the results of the 
investigation are so far-reaching, that a Memorial Lecture to Hardy would 
be incomplete without it. 
The Life of the Apple —As with man, there are many ages in the life of 
the apple, and like man the apple breathes in oxygen and exhales carbon 
dioxide and water. It breathes out other substances in minute quantities, 
but the principal products of the apple’s combustion system are carbon 
dioxide and water. 
