26 BULLETIN" 1406, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



to be transported a considerable distance, and three days elapsed 

 between the picking and the placing of these varieties in storage. 



As soon as the fruit reached the storage plant all packages in 

 which it had been picked were placed in a row and a certain number 

 of apples from each individual package were placed in another 

 package for storage. In this way as thorough a mixture of fruit 

 and as uniform a sample as it is possible to obtain were procured. 

 If the lot of fruit for testing had come from several different trees, 

 the same number of apples from individual trees was placed in 

 each package used for holding the fruit. 



During the season of 1923-24 it was not possible to move the fruit 

 directly from the orchard into the different temperatures at which 

 it was planned to hold the fruit. Consequently, the apples were all 

 held at 32° F. for a period of from one to two and one-half months. 

 The firmness of the fruit was tested with a mechanical pressure 

 tester, as described in Part I of this bulletin, at the time of placing 

 the apples in storage and again when it became possible to move the 

 fruit to the different temperatures for holding. 



The storage rooms in which the fruit was held were maintained 

 at temperatures of 32°, 36°, 40°, 50°, 60°, 70°, and 85° F., respec- 

 tively. The temperatures in all of the warmer rooms were thermo- 

 statically controlled and usually were maintained to within less than 

 a degree of the desired point. Kooms held at 32°, 36°, and 40° were 

 regulated by controlling the brine flow through pipes, since the fruit 

 was being held in regular cold-storage rooms. Although there were 

 slight fluctuations in temperatures in these rooms, the controls on 

 the whole were very satisfactory. 



Samples from the different lots of fruit were tested at intervals 

 to determine the exact rate of softening at the different tempera- 

 tures. Apples held at 70° and 85° F. were tested at intervals of 

 three or four days; those held at 60° at five or six day intervals; 

 those at 50° at about weekly intervals; those at the lower tempera- 

 tures were tested at intervals which were correspondingly increased. 

 At 32° most varieties were tested about once a month. 



The data for the storage season 1923-24 gave a very satisfactory 

 measure of the relative rate of softening at different temperatures. 

 Since all fruit had been previously held for a certain length of time 

 at 32° F., however, it was not possible to determine whether or not 

 this holding at a low temperature influenced the subsequent rate of 

 softening at higher temperatures. During the storage season of 

 192^-25 it was possible to take the apples directly from the orchards 

 and place them in rooms held at the different temperatures. Prior to 

 storage the fruit was handled in the same way as during the pre- 

 ceding year, being moved to the storage plant as quickly as possible 

 and repacked into uniform sample lots for storing at the different 

 temperatures. Holding fruit at 85° F. was omitted during the second 

 season's work, and storage at 30° was added to the temperatures 

 used. The fruit was tested for hardness at the time of placing it in 

 the different storage temperatures, and pressure tests to determine 

 the rate of softening of the different varieties were made at approxi ■ 

 mately the same intervals as during the preceding year. 



Most of the results here reported were obtained with fruit 

 grown on the Arlington Experiment Farm, Eosslyn, Va., just across 



