EXPERIMENTS OF 1910. 19 



became soft during the same interval. None of the fruit in cold stor- 

 age softened up to this time or until five days later. From then on 

 it slowly softened. After a total storage period of 37 days, 12 speci- 

 mens, or 50 per cent, were soft. After softening, the processed fruits 

 darkened and were then inferior in flavor to softened unprocessed 

 fruits. 



Experiment 1 1 . — Two six-basket carriers of Tane-nashi persim- 

 mons, purchased on the local market, were placed in process in the 

 iron cans on November 2. This fruit had been in cold storage. Nine 

 days were required for the processing and much injury, due to crack- 

 ing, occurred. The results of the experiment were far from satisfac- 

 tory. It is possible that some air had access to the fruit, coming 

 through the water seal as a result of contraction due to cooling, and 

 also of the contraction which is always noticed when carbon dioxid 

 is first used. 1 The fruit behaved abnormally, due probably to some 

 unknown cause and not to cold storage, as was at first thought, as it 

 was found later that cold-storage fruit processed normally (see 

 p. 23). 



Experiment 12. — On November 9 an experiment which consisted in 

 treating Okame persimmons, purchased on the local market, with 

 carbon dioxid in the iron cans was begun. This fruit, too, failed to 

 process satisfactorily, requiring eight days, and seemed to be dis- 

 tinctly injured, as when received the firm fruits lacked the turgor, or 

 crispness, of normal persimmons. The fruits did not crack badly, 

 though the humidity in the cans was pronounced. After processing, 

 the fruit browned as it softened and developed a disagreeable 

 " cooked" flavor. Physiological death had probably occurred as a 

 result of processing. 



The results of experiments 11 and 12 ; though not successful, are 

 useful in showing that abnormal fruits may be found which, perhaps 

 because of some injury to their physiological processes, do hot quickly 

 become nonastringent when asphyxiated. The results also indicate 

 the great need of some method of diminishing the humidity when 

 processing in large quantities. 



A number of problems now arose in the consideration of processing 

 in carbon dioxid on a commercial scale, and the succeeding experi- 

 ments were planned to answer as many of them as practicable. Some 

 of these problems were as follows : 



1. How is the rate of softening affected by processing? 



2. Is the fruit injured by overprocessing, and if so, how ? 



3. Can fruit be cold stored and then withdrawn and processed? 



4. Is there a simple relation between the tannin content of the 



i This is noticeable when considerable amoimts of fruit are used, and is probably due to the solution of 

 carbon dioxid in the Iruit juices. 



