HANDLING APPLES FROM TREE TO TABLE 



35 



£_ 



OTS PI., ft** 8 



APPLE'S 



THE KHMCcVV/icOPfWA^Pii 







iitituM 



Figure 18. — Attractive mass display of apples. Careless handling and piling of 

 such large masses of apples may cause bad bruising and stem punctures and 

 result in decay unless the fruit is consumed quickly. 



should have the apples inspected at the time he intends to purchase 

 them in order to determine the extent to which deterioration has 

 progressed since the apples were graded and packed. Most dealers 

 make such inspections themselves or have the opportunity to do so. 

 Hence, if they buy fruit that is badly bruised, overripe, more or less 

 decayed, misshapen, wormy or scale infested, or culls, presumably 

 they do it with the intent to offer that class of fruit to customers. 



Next to bad bruising, overripeness is the greatest cause of complaint 

 among retail purchasers. How often is heard the criticism: ''Nice- 

 looking large red apples, but mealy and tasteless." That always 

 means overripe apples. How fast do apples get overripe? The 

 answer depends on the temperature — in the retailer's store as well as 

 in commercial storage or in the hands of the grower after harvest. 

 As pointed out earlier (p. 8), apples ripen about twice as fast at 

 70° as at 50° F., twice as fast at 50° as at 40°, and twice as fast at 40° 

 as at 32°. If they are ripe when bought for sale, some kinds (Deli- 

 cious in particular) can become overripe and meal} 7 in 2 or 3 days at 

 ordinary store temperatures and in even less time if they are piled 

 behind windows for display and are not protected against hot sun- 

 shine. The safest procedure for a retail merchant is to regard apples 

 from cold storage late in the season as being as perishable as peaches 

 at the height of their season and to move the apples into consumers' 

 hands before they have a chance to get overripe and out of condition. 



Apples purchased in small lots usually cost more than those obtained 

 in large quantity ; hence, retailers may buy more than they can dispose 



