Aug. 1, 1924 
Oiled Paper in the Control of Scald on Barrel Apples 133 
OILED STRAW 
In 1923, experiments were conducted 
with oiled wheat straw. The straw 
was cut into lengths of 1 or 2 inches, 
sprayed with oil and allowed to stand 
a week or more before using. It 
seemed quite oily immediately after the 
spraying but in a few days the oil was 
so completely absorbed by the straw 
that it was scarcely noticeable, especi¬ 
ally in the cases of the lighter appli¬ 
cations. One-half pound to one pound 
of oil was used with the straw in each 
barrel of apples. The test was carried 
out on two separate lots of York Im¬ 
perial and the results are reported in 
Table II. 
The straw punctured some of the 
apples and caused a slight increase in 
the number of rots. The dust from the 
straw was inclined to stick to the apples 
after removal from storage and de¬ 
tracted from their appearance. The 
straw itself, without the oil, seemed to 
have some value in scald control, re¬ 
ducing the disease to about half the 
amount found on the untreated barrels. 
The oiled straw gave practically com¬ 
plete scald control, making even a bet¬ 
ter showing than the oiled wrappers. 
It should be noted, however, that a 
larger quantity of oiled material was 
used in the case of the straw than with 
the wrappers. 
SHREDDED OILED PAPER 
In 1923 several of the companies that 
were manufacturing oiled wrappers also 
prepared some form of shredded oiled 
paper. Two different brands of this 
paper were tested in the experiments 
reported in Table II. The chopped 
paper had been cut into pieces about 
1 inch wide and 1 to 2 inches long. 
It was well oiled and tightly pressed 
together, making it difficult to get 
the mass of paper in a finely divided 
condition suitable for thorough dis¬ 
tribution in the package. The rib¬ 
boned paper consisted of strips about 
one-fourth inch wide and 10 to 12 
inches long. It was well oiled but loose 
and springy and seemed to enmesh the 
apples more thoroughly than the 
chopped paper. It also gave a nice 
appearance to the package. Both 
brands of paper were thoroughly and 
evenly distributed through the barrel. 
The experiment was conducted on 
Grimes Golden, Arkansas, Ben Davis, 
Yellow Newtown, and on two separate 
lots of York Imperial apples. Two 
or more barrels were included in each 
treatment of each variety. The re¬ 
sults are reported in Table II. 
The weight of oiled wrappers that 
would be required for wrapping a 
barrel of apples would vary with the 
size of the apples and the size and 
quality of the wrappers but would prob¬ 
ably average about 1pounds. Where 
13 ^ pounds of shredded oiled paper 
were evenly distributed through the 
barrel the average scald control was 
almost identical with that secured with 
the oiled wrappers and with the Arkan¬ 
sas variety it was distinctly better than 
with the wrappers. With 1 pound 
of shredded oiled paper to the barrel 
the results on Grimes Golden and 
Arkansas were poorer than those with 
the oiled wrappers, but the 1-pound 
treatment gave very satisfactory results 
on York Imperial. With 2 34 pounds of 
shredded paper to the barrel the results 
on the Arkansas were no better than 
with 1J4 pounds, but with the York 
Imperial the 2J4 pounds gave better 
scald control than any other treatment. 
In general, the results indicate that 
shredded oiled paper, well distributed 
in the barrel, will give practically as 
good scald control as an equal weight 
of oiled paper used as wrappers. 
DISCUSSION 
The foregoing experiments give some 
additional information in regard to the 
nature of apple scald and furnish prac¬ 
tical suggestions for the control of the 
disease in the barrel package. 
The oiled barrels and the oiled liners 
were a failure although 1 pound of oil 
was used to the barrel. Three pounds 
of oiled blotter strips carrying 1.5 
pounds of oil to the barrel gave very 
poor scald control. Five to six pounds 
of oiled straw carrying one-half to 1 
pound of oil gave good scald control. 
Shredded oil paper and layers of oiled 
wrappers, used at the rate of 1.5 pounds 
to the barrel and carrying about 5 
ounces of oil to the barrel in each 
case, gave practically the same scald 
control as was obtained by wrapping 
each apple in an oiled wrapper. The 
quantity of paper and oil per barrel 
was approximately the same with 
the layers and the shredded paper as 
where each apple was wrapped sepa¬ 
rately. The results indicate that it is 
not essential to scald control, at least 
in the barrel package, to have the 
apples actually inclosed in wrappers or 
to have the oiled material in contact 
with the apples at every point. On the 
other hand, the failure of the oiled 
barrels, the oiled liners, and the oiled 
blotter strips with their heavy appli¬ 
cations of oil, indicates that the oiled 
material must be in close proximity to 
