THE EFFECTS OF STORAGE ON FRUITS 123 
as soon as picked, and immediately forwarded to the 
storage house. Any delay in getting the temperature 
down to the desired point will have a tendency to shorten 
the time which the fruit will keep. 
Fruit wrappers have a very marked influence on 
stored fruit. They prevent, to a certain extent, the 
spread of decay organisms, they help to control the 
humidity by keeping the moisture from evaporating so 
rapidly and also prevent the rapid rise of temperature 
when fruit is taken out of the storage.. All these con- 
siderations are of importance and the producer who 
wishes to store his fruit for the; longest. possible time 
makes use of them. Where the producer: is storing fruit 
for only a short time, he- need not pay. so much atten- 
tion to these conditions. 
Freezing Effects.—No doubt almost every orchardist 
has found fruit that has apparently been frozen and 
then later thawed out without material injury. This 
is not only true in the case of fruits but also of vege- 
tables and other products as well. This depends not 
so much upon the temperature to which the fruit is sub- 
jected as upon the way in which it is thawed out. In 
cases where the temperature does not run too low, if the 
thawing out is conducted carefully and not too rapidly, 
the fruit will again take its normal condition and ap- 
parently be as good as before. The effect of freezing 
on fruit is not very well understood but it is supposed 
that in the freezing process the cell sap is disorganized 
and a part of it forced out between the cells or into the 
inter-cellular spaces. Where thawing is gradual this 
sap goes back into the cells and assumes its normal con- 
dition, but where thawing is rapid the moisture evapo- 
