COLD STORAGE FOR APPLES AND PEARS 



49 



of it with equal promptness means that none of it is cooled quickly. 

 In general, the longer a box of apples is to be held, the more impor- 

 tant it is to cool it quickly. This is illustrated graphically in figure 18. 

 This suggests that long-storage lots of fruit should get more than an 

 equal share of refrigeration at harvesttime and short-storage lots 

 less. Those for long storage should be put in rooms where the re- 

 ceipts would be limited to a quantity that could be cooled rapidly. 

 Fruit for shipment during the harvest season or shortly thereafter 

 would be deliberately withheld from any of the cold-storage rooms 

 in order to save the refrigeration for long-storage lots. Apples for 

 immediate shipment would be cooled as quickly as possible without 

 penalizing the long-storage lots. 



The procedure of segregating apples for long-, intermediate-, and 

 short-storage periods places demands upon the management for more 



COOLED TO 36°F 

 IN 6 WEEKS 



COOLED TO 36°F 

 IN 7 DAYS 



COOLED TO 40 e F 

 !N 7 DAYS 



COOLED TO 36°F 

 IN 7 DAYS 



COOLED TO 32°F. 

 IN 7 DAYS 



COOLED TO 30°F 

 IN 7 DAYS 



HELD AT 36° TO DEC. 20 



HELDAT36°T0JAN.I5 



HELD AT 40° 21 DAYS ; THEN COOLED TO 32° IN 28 DAYS; HELD AT 32° TO FEB.IO 



THEN COOLED TO 32° IN 4 WEEKS; HELD AT 32° TO MAR.20 



HELD AT 32° TO APR. 1 5 



HELD AT 30° TO JUNE I 



SEPT. OCT. 



NOV, 



DEC. 



JAN. 



FEB. 



MAR. 



APR. 



MAY- 



FIGURE 18. — Normal storage life expectancy of Delicious apples when cooled at 

 different rates and stored at different temperatures. For each week of ex- 

 posure at 70° F. before storage, deduct 9 weeks of storage life at 32° ; for 

 each week of delay at 53°, deduct 1 month of storage life at 32°. 



planning before harvest than a procedure whereby all the apples are 

 treated alike. This planning should include the selection of apples 

 that are of optimum maturity and freest from inherent defects for 

 preferential refrigeration over the long period on the one hand and 

 the early marketing of weak overmature fruit on the other. It may 

 necessitate the use of cold-storage-in-transit privileges and shipping 

 the fruit under the standard refrigeration service provided by the rail- 

 roads for a part of the tonnage scheduled for intermediate and early 

 marketing, in order to conserve local refrigeration for promptly and 

 adequately cooling the tonnage intended for marketing after De- 

 cember. It should be emphasized that such a sacrifice in cooling early 

 shipments is an expedient and is desirable only when limited capacity 

 prevents prompt cooling of the entire crop. 



