UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 830 i 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 



WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief J^^^fU 



Washington, D. C. PROFESSIONAL PAPER March 6, 1920 



EFFECT OF TEMPERATURE ON THE RESISTANCE 

 TO WOUNDING OF CERTAIN SMALL FRUITS AND 

 CHERRIES. 1 



By Lon A. Hawkins, Plant Physiologist, and Charles E. Sando, Junior Chemist, 

 Office of Horticultural and Pomological Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

 Experimental work 1 



Description of the method employed 2 



Page. 



Conditions of the tests 3 



Discussion of results 5 



EXPERIMENTAL WORK. 



Precooling, that is, cooling down rapidly to a refrigerating tem- 

 perature either before or immediately after fruit is placed in cars for 

 shipment, has resulted in appreciable savings in the shipment of 

 perishable fruits. 



Powell 2 has shown that the precooling of oranges rendered them 

 less susceptible to decay. He has also shown that fruit even slightly 

 injured is much more liable to fungous infection and decay than 

 sound fruit. 



Ramsey 3 comes to much the same conclusion as regards the ship- 

 ment of red raspberries from the Puyallup Valley. 



Stevens and Wilcox, 4 working with strawberries, showed that 

 RMzopus nigricans Ehrenb., which causes much of the decay of this 

 fruit in transit, could not infect unwounded berries and that less 

 infection occurred when the berries were properly cooled and 

 refrigerated until they reached the market. 



1 This bulletin gives the result of a portion of the work carried on under the project "Factors Affect- 

 ing the Storage Life of Fruits." 



2 Powell et al. The decay of oranges while in transit from California. IT. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant 

 Indus. Bui. 123, 79 p., illus. 1908. 



3 Ramsey, H. J. Factors governing the successful shipment of red raspberries from the Puyallup Valley. 

 V. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 274, 37 p., illus. 1915. 



« Stevens, Neil E., and Wilcox, R. B. Rhizopus rot of strawberries in transit. U. S. Dept. Agr. Bui. 

 531, 22 p. Literature cited, p. 2.1-22. 1917. 

 152340°— 20— Bull. 830 



