13 



tween the warehouseman and the fruit storer, Thovigh 

 they might be avoided and the conditions improved if 

 there was a clearer definition on the influence of fruit 

 preservation! of cultural methods, methods of handling 

 and the methods of storing. The best definition that I 

 have seen on the subject is one that is found in one of 

 the reports of the IT, S Dept,* and is as follows: 



"A fruit is a living organism in which the life pro- 

 cesses go forward more slowly in low terapera-tures , but 

 do nQt cease even in the lowest temperatures in which 

 the fruit may be safely stored, When the fruit natural- 

 ly reaches the end of its life, it dies from old age. 

 It may be killed prematurely by rots, usually caused by 

 fungi which lodge on the fruit before it is packed or 

 sometimes afterward. The cold storage house is designed 

 to arrest the ripening processes in a temperature that 

 will not injure the fruit in other respects and thereby 

 to prolong it* life history. It is designed also to re- 

 tard the development of the diseases with urtiich the £eh± 

 fruit is afflicted, but it cannot prevent the slow gj s jajtA. 

 growth of some of them. It follows that the behavior 

 of different apples or lots of apples in a storage room 

 is largely dependent on their condition when they enter 

 the room. If they are in a dissemilar condition of ri- 



»S, H. Pulton 



