EXPERIMENTS OF 1910. 13 



on September 21 and kept in cold storage. The fruits selected were 

 firm and equally well colored. 



One Hachiya and four Tane-nashi persimmons were placed in a 

 desiccator. A pad of paper pulp soaked with 18 per cent alcohol * 

 was used as in experiment 2. A slow continuous current of air was 

 passed through the desiccator. At the end of four days the Hachiya 

 specimen had softened, while of the four Tane-nashi three were 

 soft and one was just beginning to mellow. In another desiccator 

 under identical conditions, except that carbon dioxid was used to 

 displace the air, the Hachiya specimen softened slightly in four days, 

 while of the four Tane-nashi one was softening and three were 

 firm. Two Hachiya and three Tane-nashi were placed in a third 

 desiccator in which carbon dioxid alone was used. One of the 

 Hachiya was firm and one was softening slightly at the end of four 

 days, and of the three Tane-nashi used one was beginning to soften 

 while two were firm. Again the retention of firmness by displacing 

 the air by carbon dioxid was shown. 



As fruits which had been subjected to cold storage had been 

 employed in experiments 2 and 3 and but few specimens were used, 

 it was not considered safe to draw conclusions at this time. The 

 results were regarded as indications only of the possible value of 

 replacing the air by carbon dioxid. 



Experiment 4- — On October 12 a fourth experiment was started on 

 a much larger scale than any of the foregoing. Thirty-two large, 

 well-colored, firm Tane-nashi, just received by express from Florida, 

 were divided into four equal lots. Each lot was placed in a 10-inch 

 tubulated desiccator which could be supplied either with a current of 

 air or with carbon dioxid. Lot A was supplied with a continuous 

 current of air. At the end of five days all of the fruits were soft. 

 Lot B was similarly supplied with a steady current of air and a block 

 of paper pulp wet with dilute alcohol was placed in the desiccator. 

 All of these fruits also softened at the end of five days. In lot C the 

 air was displaced by carbon dioxid. Six of these fruits remained 

 firm and two others were just beginning to show signs of softening at 

 the end of five days. In lot D dilute alcohol was used spread on paper 

 pulp and the air was displaced by carbon dioxid as in lot B. At the 

 end of five days six specimens were still firm and two were beginning 

 to soften. Lot C was showing injury due to cracks caused by the 

 high humidity of the chamber, and lot D was very badly injured from 

 this cause. No such injury appeared in lots A and B. 



From these four experiments, in each of which the samples, kept 

 either without renewal of the air supply or in carbon dioxid, tended to 

 retain their firmness while the control fruits softened considerably, 

 it may be concluded that keeping the fruit in carbon dioxid, and so 

 excluding oxygen, causes it to remain firm. 



. l Containing 1 part in 20,000 of mercuric chlorid as before mentioned. 



