HANDLING APPLES FROM TREE TO TABLE 37 



The effects of hidden damage are probably greatest in shipments that 

 move under heater service. Mallison, Gorman, and Hukill (18) found 

 that heater service often warms the fruit in the car to temperatures 

 that would call for the use of refrigeration in summer shipments. Such 

 inconsistency is due to the impossibility of closely regulating the heat 

 supplied and its distribution in the car with ordinary heating devices. 

 The temperature in the bottom of the load is sometimes down to freez- 

 ing when that in the upper layers is up to 60° F. or higher. Unquestion- 

 ably a great deal of damage has been done to winter shipments of Deli- 

 cious and other varieties, which are especially prone to become mealy, 

 by the heater service used to protect the fruit against freezing while in 

 transit. 



Recent investigations by the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture and the Association of American Railroads have shown that these 

 conditions can be largely corrected by using heaters having thermostati- 

 cally controlled burners in cars with air-circulating fans. The mechanical 

 circulation of the air within the car was shown to be very important. 

 It provided a means of protecting apples against freezing during short 

 periods of cold weather without supplementary heat; when heat was 

 supplied less heat was required and it gave protection against freezing 

 without excessively high temperatures at the top of the load. With 

 greater numbers of cars equipped with fans now available, apple shippers 

 would do well to use them at every opportunity, especially when low 

 temperatures are likely during shipment. When sustained low tempera- 

 tures are probable, as after the middle of November with shipments 

 across the northern part of the continent, the mechanical circulation 

 of air should be supplemented with heater service. Otherwise, freezing 

 throughout the load may result if the shipment should encounter several 

 days of near-zero weather. 



THE DEALER'S RESPONSIBILITY 



From what has been said so far, it might appear that the condition and 

 quality of apples are predetermined by what happens to the fruit before 

 it reaches the dealer. This is true in large measure, but there are a num- 

 ber of things that the dealer can do to reduce deterioration of the apples 

 he buys for resale. To list them would be for the most part to repeat 

 the factors already enumerated, but with special application to condi- 

 tions under the dealer's control. 



Apples at proper harvest maturity usually have not reached their 

 highest eating quality. The maximum dessert quality appears after a 

 storage period, the length of which varies with different varieties, stage 

 of maturity at time of harvest, and the storage temperature. After 

 they have reached maximum dessert quality they begin to deteriorate. 

 The longer they are held in storage the shorter will be the marketable 

 life when removed for sale. 



The first responsibility of the dealer is to buy good fruit, but this does 

 not necessarily mean buying fruit marked "Extra Fancy" or "U. S. No. 

 1." These grade designations, even though they may have honestly 

 described the quality of the fruit at the time of packing, do not reflect 

 changes in condition, such as ripeness, decay, and scald, that have taken 

 place during storage. The buyer should have the apples inspected at 

 the time he intends to purchase them in order to determine the extent 



