Middletown transcript., 1914-07-11
FARMERS CAN USE FACILITIES

4 uGoCIlOCQ III JACdAOQS ISSUE, III
Office of Horticultural and Pomologica
Investigations is mainly interested il
the fruits, vegetables, and flowers nov
grown on commercial scale in thi,
country. The office maintains a vol
luminous correspondence with growers
shippers, or individuals throughout the
country who desire information of the
following topics:
Adaptability of fruit varieties to en-
vironment.
Methods of fruit culture.
Problems of orchard management.
Harvesting, handling, packing, ship
ping and storage of fruit.
Preceding of fruit and vegetables,
and shipment under refrigeration or
ventilation.
Chemical phases of fruit-ripening and
the manufacture OF concentrated fruit
! juices and by-products.
Identification an description of fruit
varieties.
Nut culture (pecans, walnuts, chest
nuts, almonds, hickories).
Improvement or citrus and deciduous
fruits through bud selection, by cross
ing and by hybridizing.
Methods of growing, harvesting,
handling, shipping, storing, and mar
keting of vegetable and truck crops or
crops grown under glass.
Commercial potato culture and the
improvement of seed potatoes by breed
ing and selection.
Growing, harvesting, curing, thresh-
ing, and by-products of peanuts and
the improvement of commercial varie-
ties.
Commercial production of flower and
garden seed.
School garden work.
Landscape gardening and the use of
trees, shrubs, and flowers on streets and
lawns and in parks.
Improvement of flower varieties.
This Office is working hard to deter
mine the exact behavior of fruit varie-
ties under different environments and
the geographical range of successful
culture of different kinds and varieties
of fruit; it also furnishes information
as to the cultural conditions and me
thods best suited to the growing of
different fruits.
The improvement of handling and
marketing conditions and the prac-
tical solution of the problems of trans
portation and storage with which
growers and dealers are concerned com
prise a large portion of the work of the
office.
The object of the fruit harvesting,
transportation, and storage work has
been to determine the influence of geo
graphical regions and local physio-
graphical and cultural conditions on
the keeping quality of fruit; the in
f1uence of methods of handling fruit in
plantations, packing houses, storage
houses, and in transportation, on the
keeping quality of fruit in storage, in
transit, and on the market. Studies of
the relationship of the methods of
handling fruits in preparing them for
shipment to decay in transit and on the
market have been and are being made
with oranges and other citrus fruits in
Florida; oranges, lemons, peaches,
grapes, berries, and fresh figs in Cali
fornia; pears, primes, cherries, and
loganberries in Oregon; and red rasp-
berries, peaches, and pears in Wash
ington. The cause of decay and the
methods of handling the fruit so that
this decay can be largely prevented
have been worked out by the office.
PRECEDING, SHIPPING, OF FRUITS
Preceding Investigations have been
carried on with peaches in Georgia and
Washington; red raspberries in Wash
ington; prunes, cherries, loganberries,
and pears in Oregon; oranges and
grapes in California, and these investi-
cations are now being extended to in
clude oranges and pineapples in Florida
and loganberries and blackberries in
California.
The storage investigations have in
cluded work on apples, pears, peaches,
and small fruits in the Eastern States.
pomelos in Florida; oranges, lemons,
apples, grapes, and fresh figs in .Cali-
fornia; and apples and pears in Oregon
and Washington.
A constant effort is made to help the
fruit ihterets of the different regions in
which the work is being done. As a
result of the orange and lemon hand
ling work in California, losses estima-
ted at over $1,000, 600 annually were
eliminated by improvement in the
handling of these fruits in preparing
them for shipment The great i'm
provement which has been made in re-
cent years in Florida is direct result
Of the orange handling and shipping in
vestigations carried on in this State.
The preliminary results of the Florida
pomelo Investigations have demonstra-
ted the possibility Of picking grape
fruit early and storing for several
months without refrigeration in order
to extend the market season and equal
ize distribution.