4 BULLETIN 1368, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Lot 1. Treated with kerosene-stove gas for 24 hours; had about 8 per cent 
pitting which could be considered noticeable from a commercial standpoint. 
Lot 2. About 3 per cent rot in this lot, which was cured seven days at pack- 
ing-house temperatures and showed some pitting. 
Lot 3. Cured with kerosene-stove gas for 63 hours; showed 2.2 per cent 
pitting. say 
Lot 4. Cured 48 hours in kerosene-stove gas; showed 4 per cent pitting. 
Lot 5. Picked and packed directly without curing; showed 5 per cent pitting. 
This experiment indicates that about as good results can be ob- 
tained by curing by means of gas from the incomplete combustion of 
kerosene in an ordinary cooking stove as by allowing the fruit to stand 
at packing-house atmosphere from a week to 10 days and that fruit 
picked the early part of the season can be readily stored for six — 
weeks to two months at 32° F.. provided it is in good condition when 
placed in storage. | 
THIRD EXPERIMENT 
A third car of grapefruit was stored in April, 1923. This fruit 
was picked April 10, immediately after which it was stacked in the 
packing house with air spaces between the stacks to provide good 
ventilation. During the day the fruit was exposed to the packing- 
house air, and at night when the humidity was high a large tent 
was placed over it, with a two-burner kerosene stove under the tent. 
The fruit was cured four days, during which time the humidity 
ranged from 47 to 73 per cent and the temperature from 79° to 
84° F. The loss in weight was 1.6 per cent. The fruit was packed 
April 14, loaded and shipped under standard ventilation April 16, 
and arrived at the cold-storage plant at Arlington Experiment 
Farm, Va., April 23. An inspection on arrival showed 4 to 5 per 
cent decay. The fruit was unloaded immediately and placed in 
storage at a temperature of 32° F. 
Examination after the fruit had been in storage six weeks showed 
1.14 per cent decay due to stem-end rot and 3.2 per cent due to blue 
mold, making a total of 4.3 per cent in the first grade. The second 
grade showed 0.68 per cent stem-end rot and 3.3 per cent blue mold, 
totaling 3.98 per cent. In the third grade there was 0.85 per cent 
decay due to stem-end rot and 7.3 per cent due to blue mold, a total 
of 8.15 per cent. Another inspection one week later showed 3.39 per 
cent total decay in the first grade, 2.98 per cent in the second, and 
14.3 per cent in the third. In the inspection after seven weeks’ 
storage the first and second grades showed 4.4 per cent bad pitting; 
that is, pitting in which the sunken areas were more than one-eighth 
of an inch in diameter. The third grade showed 10.5 per cent of 
this type of pitting. Uncured fruit of the first grade showed 4.8 
per cent bad pitting at this inspection. In seven weeks’ storage, or 
about nine weeks from the tree, there was about the same amount 
of bad pitting in the uncured control as in the cured fruit, which is 
in accordance with the results obtained in the two other experi- 
ments, namely, that in a storage period of a month to six weeks at 
32° F. the development of pitting even in uncured fruit is not liable 
to be of any appreciable significance in a commercial way. 
It had been observed in earlier experiments that fruit which had 
been exposed to kerosene-stove gas for a sufficient length of time to 
loosen the stem buttons so that they were removed in passing 
