Circular No. 659 



August 1 942 • Washington, D. C. 



UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



Handling Apples from Tree to Table 



By D. F. Fisher, principal horticulturist, Division of Fruit and Vegetable Crops 

 and Diseases, Bureau of Plant Industry 



CONTENTS 



Introduction 



The grower's responsibility 



When to pick apples 



Criteria of maturity 



"When to pack apples 



Factors affecting condition during storage - 



Maturity at harvest 



Storage temperature 



Gas storage 



Atmospheric humidity 



Storage with other products 



Page 



1 

 2 

 2 



Factors affecting condition during storage- 

 Continued. 



Fungus diseases 



Bruising and other mechanical injuries.^, _ 



Physiological diseases __„ 



Effects of packaging 



Prepackaging for the consumer 



The shipper's responsibility 



The dealer's responsibility 



The industry's responsibility 



Literature cited 



Page 



*^^*^^** f *^*>* 



INTRODUCTION 



The condition of apples offered for sale by grocers and other retail 

 vendors is sometimes disappointing to the purchaser. To the extent 

 that the demand for apples is influenced thereby it affects the market 

 price of the fruit and the returns to the grower. The factors of con- 

 dition that are most important are the stage of ripeness of the fruit 

 and its freedom from decay, bruising, and other injuries. 



Growers who invest a season's work in pruning, fertilizing, spray- 

 ing, and cultivating their orchards with all the care and expense neces- 

 sary to produce a clean crop of high-quality fruit cannot help being 

 disturbed by the poor condition of apples offered by retailers, which 

 also constitutes one of the greatest handicaps to success of organiza- 

 tions established by the apple industry to advertise and otherwise 

 promote the sale and use of apples. 



Growers oftentimes are inclined to place the blame for the lack 

 of quality in the apples offered in grocery stores and other outlets on 

 the retailers and other intermediate factors in the merchandising 

 chain. They feel that the retailers and other handlers of the fruit 

 are not "apple-minded,'' that to them apples are just so much perish- 

 able merchandise which must be handled and priced according to the 

 risk attached; that, in the absence of knowledge as to how the risks 

 can be minimized, the retail price of the fruit is often pyramided to a 

 point at which sales are retarded and the whole industry suffers cor- 

 respondingly, and that, consequently, customers are often unable to buy 

 the kind of apples that they would like and turn to competing fruits. 



Market men, on the other hand, hold that frequently the fruit when 

 received has already deteriorated so much that its value is greatly re- 

 duced and the hazards of further deterioration while in process of sale 



467795° — 42 1 1 



