Abstract
RECENT issues of the American Fruit Grower. contain several brief announcements of successful applications of science to the fruit-growing industry. The issue for May describes the use of solidified carbon dioxide in addition to the usual wet ice for the cooling of strawberries during transit from Louisiana to New York. The new method saves 25–40 per cent in refrigeration costs, and has the additional advantage that the gas resulting from evaporation enhances the keeping quality of the fruit. Prof. M. A. Blake of the New Jersey Experiment Station shows, in the same issue, that stout vegetative growth of the apple shoot is more to be desired for fruit bud production than long slender shoots. The formation of such buds depends upon the presence in the wood of more starch and sugars than are utilized in growth and respiration. This excess cannot be stored while succulent or rapid growth continues, but only after growth in length is arrested. R. J. Cohen, in another direction, has used the oil from grapefruit seeds as a mordant in textile dyeing, whilst Dr. W. M. Neal has tested the residue from such seeds as a possible food for livestock. The July number contains a brief account of the investigations of Dr. E. N. Cory of Maryland into the insect pests of chestnut, hazel nut and walnut trees. A now departure in control practice lies in the use of synthetic cryolite and barium fluosilicate, applied as a spray or dust against the walnut husk maggot. A fascinating study of codling moth damage has been made by John A. Callenbach of Wisconsin University. He found that such injury was greatest near dusty roads. Dust upon the frviit provented the proper covering of spray fluids, and it has been shown that roads can be rendered dustless by the use of calcium chloride spread upon the surface.
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Science and Fruit Growing. Nature 144, 663–664 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144663d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144663d0