PROCESS OF RIPENING IN" THE TOMATO. 7 



and roll down into pockets. The tomatoes are not jarred or bruised 

 in any way in traveling from the tank to the packer. 



Careful handling is essential in the successful production and ship- 

 ping of tomatoes, and machine handling in the packing house is 

 therefore to be highly recommended. Any device which will prevent 

 bruising and cutting will reduce the opportunities for fungous infec- 

 tion and subsequent loss. 



Refrigerator cars without ice are preferred by the growers for ship- 

 ping, since these cars are fitted with ventilators which can be opened 

 and closed as weather conditions require. Ventilated cars are used 

 also when there is a shortage of refrigerator cars, but owing to their 

 poor construction there is likelihood in the colder regions of the fruit 

 freezing. When the cars first leave the South the custom is to have 

 the ventilators open, but as they move farther north these are closed 

 to prevent frost injury. When the cars are billed through to Canada 

 some shippers close the ventilators as soon as the cars are filled. 

 Each car contains an average of 500 crates, or approximately 13 tons 

 of fruit. With so large a volume of respiring fruit in a confined space 

 it is obvious that a condition of oxygen deficiency may easily come 

 about. 



PREVIOUS CHEMICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF THE TOMATO. 



The earliest important chemical investigations of the tomato seem 

 to have been those of J. F. John and C. Bertagnini, cited by Peckolt 

 (37, p. 197). The latter author states that John probably made the 

 first analysis of the tomato in 1814. Bertagnini, according to Pal- 

 meri (34), isolated citric acid from this fruit in 1850 and identified 

 it by means of its silver salt. 



In 1873, Kennedy (27) first isolated the alkaloid solanin from the 

 tomato. His method was to macerate with dilute sulphuric acid 

 for 48 hours. The expressed liquid was then treated with aqueous 

 ammonia (sp. gr., 0.96) in excess. The precipitate which separated 

 was filtered and dried at 120° F., after which it was extracted with 

 hot alcohol. On cooling, the alcoholic solution deposited solanin as 

 small feathery crystals. 



The first quantitative analysis of the whole tomato fruit was that 

 of Dahlen (16), who reported the amounts of water, protein, fat, 

 glucose, crude fiber, ash, nitrogen, and phosphoric acid. 



Since the work of Dahlen, various chemists have published analyses 

 of the tomato. Palmeri (34) in 1885 reported on the constituents of 

 various portions of the fruit and also included an ash analysis. 

 Various later attempts were made to show the amounts of nitrogen, 

 phosphoric acid, and potash which the tomato removed from the 

 soil and also the effect of different fertilizer treatments on the com- 

 position of the fruit. The most important work along this line was 



