Q2 
THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
COLD STORAGE INQUIRY. 
Address Before American Association by G. Harold Powell, 
Expert of Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 
—Cultural and Fruit Gathering Suggestions—Hew 
Ideas In Transportation Problems. 
G. Harold Powell presented the following paper at the 
Atlanta convention of the nurserymen : 
Mr. President and Members of the National Nursery¬ 
men’s Association: Your programme committee has asked 
me to discuss briefly some of the results of the fruit storage 
investigations of the Department of Agriculture. The 
purpose of these investigations is to determine the keeping 
quality and the ultimate value of the principal varieties of 
fruits when grown under different conditions of soil, climate, 
orchard management and location, and when harvested, 
shipped, stored and sold under existing commercial methods. 
These storage investigations are carried on by the Depart¬ 
ment with a view to informing the fruit grower and the fruit 
dealer what fruits are best adapted for storage purposes, 
and to find out what factors in the growing, the handling 
and the storage of the various fruits determine their suc¬ 
cessful storage and ultimate useful qualities. 
I would sum up the principal requirements for successful 
fruit storage as follows: Let the fruit come to the full size 
and a high degree of color on the tree, but retaining a hard 
texture when picked; pick the fruit with the greatest care to 
prevent bruising, as a large proportion of the losses in the 
warehouse result from bruising the fruit after it leaves the 
tree; wrap fancy fruit, especially the more delicate varieties; 
cool the fruit as quickly as possible after picking, to retard 
the ripening processes, which progress rapidly at this time, 
and to check the growth of diseases; store the fruit in a tem¬ 
perature of 30° to 32° Fahrenheit, in well ventilated rooms; 
and sell it before it reaches the point of deterioration. 
As we can only touch briefly on this subject at this time, 
I will confine my remarks to two phases of the storage ques¬ 
tion, namely, “The Influence of Cultural Conditions on the 
Shipping and Keeping Qualities of Fruits,” a subject of which 
we know comparatively little, and second, “The Importance 
of Cooling the Fruit Quickly After it is Picked, if it is Intended 
for Long Distance Shipment or for Long Keeping.” 
Cultural Conditions. 
It has been our experience that fruit that has been forced 
in growth or that has been grown to unusual size has com¬ 
paratively poor keeping quality. The forcing of the growth 
may have been the result of intensive culture and fertilization, 
causing a continuous stimulation of the trees and producing 
a rank wood growth; or the fruit of the same varieties from 
widely separated areas may show inferior keeping quality 
on account of quick acting soils and differences in climate 
that produce larger and denser trees. 
In our apple investigations we have observed a difference 
of three to five months in the keeping of several varieties, 
such as “York Imperial,” “ Pound Sweet,” “ Ben Davis,” 
“Winesap,”“HubbardstonNonesuch” and “Sutton Beauty,” 
when grown in adjoining rows on trees of different ages,the 
fruit from the young tree deteriorating soonest. 
A light crop, which generally produces large fruit, is likely 
to break down in storage several weeks earlier than fruit of 
medium size; or the largest specimens from individual trees 
deteriorate much sooner than the medium-sized fruits. 
We are often asked whether apples grown under cover 
cropping, high cultivation, pruning and spraying, are not 
inferior in keeping to those from orchards grown in sod 
whore the trees grown more moderately. We have not 
made extensive comparisons along this line, and I do not 
believe it possible to draw comparisons between the effect 
of sod and tillage on the keeping quality of the apple unless 
all of the other conditions in the orchards, such as the type 
of soil, the age of the trees, are similar. But there is little 
question that the fruit from an orchard that is being forced 
acquires the habit of going through its life processes more 
rapidly than one under moderate growth, and that it reaches 
the end of its life sooner after picking. (Illustrated with 
colored drawings.) 
1 have had a good opportunity to study the peach industry 
for several years, especially in Georgia, and I have noticed 
repeatedly that it is not always the fruit from the best fed 
and cultivated orchards that reaches the consumer in best 
condition. High cultivation, cowpeas or other forms of 
cover crops, produce a vigorous growth in the peach tree, 
they thicken up the foliage, enlarge she fruit and cut down 
the color unless the greatest care is paid to pruning, to let 
in the sunlight and air: and while these orchards may pro¬ 
duce much larger crops of fruit and may be more profitable 
to the owner, there is little question but that the fruit must 
be handled with more care if it is to reach the consumer in 
good condition. 
o , 
Practical Difficulties. 
I have dwelt on this phase of the subject in order to point 
out that some of the practical difficulties that confront the 
shipper and the storer of fruits, and which are sometimes 
attributed to the transportation company and the warehouse¬ 
man, may lie inherent in the fruit itself. I have referred 
to this branch of our Investigations, is it impresses me more 
and more each year or one to which the fruit grower and the 
fruit shipper will need to give more attention in the future 
in order that he may modify his cultural practices, if he so 
desires; or that he may know better what to expect of fruit 
grown under certain conditions, and modify the method of 
handling it accordingly. 
A large proportion of the practical difficulties in the storing 
of fruits is the direct result of delaying the fruit after it is 
picked and before it is stored. As soon as the fruit is picked 
from the tree its ripening prosesses proceed more rapidly 
than they do when it is hanging on the tree in the same tem¬ 
perature. Every effort must, therefore, be used to retard 
the ripening at this time. In cool seasons the fruit may be 
delayed for several days or weeks without serious injury, as 
the cool weather retards the ripening, but in warm weather, 
or when the temperature averages about 60° Fahrenheit, 
the ripening progresses more rapidly. At the same time, 
the diseases of the fruit spread quickly if the storing of the 
fruit is delayed, and the apple, the pear or the peach may 
already have reached the point, or have actually begun de¬ 
terioration when the storage house is reached. 
