V STORAGE AND COOLING CAPACITY IN APPLE STORAGES IN 



THE WENATCHEE-OKANOGAN . WASHINGTON. DISTRICT , 



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By Go Fc ^insbury, agricultural engineer, 



Transportation and Facilities Branch, 



Marketing Research Division 



INTRODUCTION 



In 1941 a survey of the cold storage facilities in the apple-producing 

 districts of north central Washington showed that the space available and the 

 installed cooling capacity were inadequate for proper handling of the Delicious 

 apple crop in the area. 



Since that time, apple storage facilities have been continually expanded, 

 and the deficiencies have been greatly reduced. As new plants have been con- 

 structed or existing plants expanded, data have been added to the report on 

 the original survey, in order to make these data as up-to-date and complete 

 as possible. 



RESULTS OF SURVEY 



The results of a survey as of the autumn of 1956, together with data 

 from the 1941 survey, show the changes during this 15-year period and are 

 presented in table 1. Apple production data compiled for the 1955 crop also 

 are included. The 1955 crop figures were used rather than 1956 because the 

 former more nearly represent a normal crop for the area. 



Unfavorable weather over the past 6 years made it difficult to determine 

 exactly what is a normal crop for the district as a whole, and even more diffi- 

 cult to set a normal production figure for each shipping area as set forth in 

 the tabulation. The use of the 1955 crop as a normal production yardstick is 

 considered the best guide available based on recent experience. 



CALCULATION OF SPACE AND COOLING CAPACITIES 



The procedure used in calculating space and cooling capacities is 

 essentially the same as that used in 1941, with the exception of the procedure 

 in determining how many loose boxes of fruit that can be cooled per day. 

 Daily cooling capacity for each storage was estimated by dividing the net 

 refrigeration capacity available for cooling fruit by the load imposed by 

 cooling 1,000 boxes per day. The net refrigeration capacity is the total 



