MARKET DISEASES OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 21 



Bruises 

 bruises before harvest 



Bruises produced before apples are mature are usually firm and 

 dry as compared with the other types described. Preharvest 

 bruises may be caused by orchard machinery, by the pressure of 

 fruit against limbs, by hail, and by hitting fruit with ladders 

 or with other fruit dropped during thinning. As the fruit con- 

 tinues growth the injured area becomes flattened or sunken and 

 the tissue below becomes dry and spongy. In cases of slight injury 

 no scarring of the skin is produced. Some bruises, however, 

 develop corky scar tissue over the surface of the skin at the focal 

 point of injury. 



PACKING BRUISES 



When apples are handled roughly during picking and packing, 

 bruises that are easily recognized afterward as the result of such 

 handling are produced. These bruises are usually not large, and 

 the skin covering them is only slightly discolored if at all. The 

 bruised flesh becomes brownish and in most instances shows 

 lines of fracture that are roughly parallel to or curved slightly 

 away from the surface of the fruit. Except for a few days after 

 bruising takes place, the injured flesh is dry and corky. 



Bruises produced when the cover of a container is forced into 

 place over a full, tight pack may be decidedly flattened and 1 

 inch or more in diameter, especially on apples next to the lid of a 

 basket or box. In cross section the bruised area is often conical 

 and extends deep into the flesh, sometimes clear to the core. At 

 such places the flesh inward from the skin for about *4 i ncn * s 

 brown and that nearer the core has a water-soaked, glassy ap- 

 pearance. Away from the lid or sides of a basket or box, the 

 bruises are likely to be concave, particularly if the fruit is ripe 

 and soft, because of the forcing of one apple against and into 

 another. The flesh around the outer edge of the bruised region 

 in a ripe apple, when observed in cross section, may show a 

 water-soaked, glassy condition. Beyond this may appear a zone 

 of unfractured brown flesh in which delicate brown lines (small 

 vascular bundles) can be seen. 



Packing bruises can be largely avoided by careful handling 

 methods. 



TRANSIT BRUISES 



Apples coming out of storage are riper and are therefore more 

 subject to bruising during the transit and handling operations 

 necessary to distribute them on the market. Bruising has been 

 found to be the most serious defect of apples in the retail trade. 

 At that stage in marketing, of course, it is the total accumulation 

 of all types of bruises that causes such reduction in quality. 



One of the more serious types of bruising occurs in boxed apples 

 in transit. The injury is usually found only in the apples that are 

 at the lower side of the bottom layer of boxes in the car and for 

 this reasonis frequently thought to have been caused by freezing 

 (p. 30). It is more common during the winter than during the fall 

 and spring, but it has been found in boxed apples shipped in the 

 fall before freezing weather has occurred either in the producing 



