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Show PROPER HANDLING OF APPLE CROP AFTER IT HAS BEEN PICKED Respiration of Fruit After Taken From Tree Bears Important Impor-tant Relation to Their Keeping Qualities Keep About Twice as Long in Cold Storage as in Ordinary Cellar. (By F. W. MORSE, New Hampshire.) The respiration of animals is a well know action and the necessity for it iu the living creature is fully appreciated. appre-ciated. The fact that plants and parts of plants must also breathe is not so commonly understood. Yet all living cells, whether a part of animal matter or vegetable matter, must have oxygen to keep them alive and they give up carbon dioxide and water as a result of the action of the oxygen on some of their contents. Parts of plants when cut off from the main stem do not die at once, and must continue to breathe. This Is true, whether the severed part is a leafy branch, a fruit or a root; but somo parts live much longer after removal than others, and the apple continues to breathe for many weeks after it has been picked from the tree. The chief products of respiration are the same in plants as in animals, namely, carbon dioxide (commonly called carbonic acid) and water. These products can be easily shown by placing plac-ing one or more apples In j, glass jar and covering It tightly. In a few hours a dewy film will cover the Inner surface of the Jar,, that In time will collect into drops which will trickle to the bottom. On opening the jar, a little clear lime-water may be poured Into it without touching the fruit, and Now as the apple breathes in the oxygen oxy-gen of the air, and breathes out carbonic car-bonic acid, the latter will be absorbed by the caustic solution while water will rise in the 'jar to fill the space made vacant by the removal of the oxygen. Finally the water will fill about one-fifth of the air space originally orig-inally present and remain stationary, because the oxygen is all used. Respiration, whether in animals or in plants, causes a destruction of matter mat-ter in the cells much like the destruction destruc-tion of wood in a stove, and the rate at which this destruction goes on cat. he measured by determining the amount of carbonic acid that is breathed out in a given length of time. Fruit, after having been picked from the tree is in the condition of a starving starv-ing animal. Its cells still keep up respiration res-piration with nothing in the way ol food to make good the losses produced by the action. Since apples and other fruits have no body heat to maintain, the breathing process is not so active as In animals, and they may last months after being picked from the tree. Yet there is a steady, continuous contin-uous loss in -weight as the weeks go by, although th? fruit is sound and firm. Respiration is partly a chemical reaction, re-action, and in apples, like most chemical chem-ical solutions in the laboratory, it grows more rapid as the fruit becomes warmer, and slowed down when the fruit is cooled. It is frequently the case that warm days with temperatures of 70 degrees occur late in the fall, and sometimes continue for a considerable period. Fancy apples intended for long keeping keep-ing in cold storage should be cooled as soon as possible and kept cold. The breathing process is at the expense of cell contents and must weaken the keeping qualities as it goes on. And this destructive action is from four to six times as fast out of cold storage as inside it. Another fact in connection with the . respiration is important. It is not stopped in cold storage, but simply slowed. Apples cannot be kept indefinitely, in-definitely, but kept about twice as long in cold storage as in a cool cellar. Testing an Apple. the lime-water will be seen to turn milky, just as it will If an animal's breath is forced through it. The taking up of oxygen from the air can also be rear'"v shown .by the following interesting experiment. In a large basin partially filled with water set a small support on which Is placed an apple and a small open dish containing a solution of caustic soda or potash. The apple should not touch the water nor the caustic solution. solu-tion. Cover the support and its contents con-tents by a large bell glass or wide jar with its mouth wholly in the water. |