STORAGE OF APPLES.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 464, 24 March 1909, Page 5

STORAGE OF APPLES.

EXPERIMENTS WITH TEMPERATURES. The question of cold storage of apples, mentioned in the interview with Mr. Boucher, published yesterday, is likely to receive • increasing attention from now onwards. The principle of tlie preservation of fruit uy cold is based on tho assumption that cold retaids ripening, as indicated by the exhalation of carbonic acid gas. At Uiu .Now Hampshire Expt>rim-3;it Station the matter has been investigated for two seasons by Mr. F. W. Morse. His object was to determine the rapidity wit'i which apples change in composition when stored at different temperatures, tho rate being measured by determining the amount of carbon dioxide given off by the fruit at different temperatures. A simple apparatus was used •for the purpose of collecting and measuring the carbon dioxide. Sound Baldwin apples were used in onch experiment, and the temperatures maintained were 32 degrees F. (representing cold storage). 40 to ECi degrees (cool cellar), and 6S' to SO degTccs (summer temperature). Tho av-jnge rates of exhalation per kilogramme of apples for one hour as calculated in the first season's test were as follow: — Summer temperature ... ... 18 mg. Cellar temperature ... ... 8.1 mg. Cold storage 2.7 mg. In tho second season's test the results were: — ' ! . At 68 degrees ... ■ ... ..: 21.9 mg. At 50 degrees ... ... ... 13.2 mg. At 32 degrees , .... ..V ... 5.2 mg. In tho first season's teats the records were taken at different dates from October to March inclusive; and in tho second season at different dates in March. The experimenters conclude that since the rate of exhalation of carbon dioxide i; an indication of the rate of chemical change 'within tho fruit, therefore, it is shown that changes of decomposition must take place from 4 to 6 times as fast at summer temperatures as in cold storage, and from 2 to 3 times as fast in cool cellars as -in cold storage. Apples intended for long keening in cold storage should therefore Be cooled as soon as possible and kept cool.