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About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1960)
CA Storage Development Analyzed by Horticulturist Editor'! Noiat Thi ?. . . slightly condensed version ' of a talk on controlled at mosphere storage and han dling of pears given by El mer Hansen, OSC horticul turist during the recent; Northwest Perishable Ship pert conference h e 1 d in 1 Medford. p :-: ;f It's difficult to tell nowhdw far the trend will go toward commercial use of controlled atmosphere storage but there was a phenomenal increase in its use during the past two seasons,; said Elmer Hansen, OSC horticulturist. "However, the purpose, lim itations and problems must be clearly understood so its de velopment can proceed on a sound practical basis consis tent with the best interest of the fruit industry' Hansen said. "This is particularly true for winter pears, since less is known about the specific re quirements for these fruits. We do not have a background of commercial experience in working with CA storage for pears as we do for apples.' Five Considerations Given s Five major considerations should be given c a r e f u 1 thought and attention before CA storage is ; attempted on any scale for any particular fruit, Hansen emphasized. This is not an evolutionary development destined to re place . general storage meth ods. It is supplemental,, too, to refrigeration which can be used for specific problems After the specific problem is found packing house oper ators should determine wheth er sufficient research data could be obtained to show if the problem can be solved successfully by this method. It is not a cure-all for all fruit storage disorders. "We do not have sufficient basic research information now to predict how changes in carbon dioxide and oxygen content will affect biochemi cal and physiological changes in keepability, flavor1 and tex ture of the fruit," the. horti culturist added. Some changes or side ef fects discovered so far in CA storage are loss of flavor in some apple varieties and in crease in acid content This may be desirable in some fruits but objectionable in others. Pears in CA storage ripen slower but shelf life greatly increases. Lower Oxygen Also, apparently pears can be stored at lower oxygen levels than apples. Suscepti bility of apples and pears to various types of disorders vary frpm season to season and according to variety. Re actions in controlled atmos phere storage should be ob served over several seasons, Five "years experience is re quired before safe recommen dations for variety can be made. . Economic feasibility should be considered .also. CA stor age, costs more to build. It requires constant daily- check ing and careful attention throughout the storage per iod. :The important question is could the logical line of de velopment be toward the rela tively: smaU CA storage own ed and Operated by individual shippers or toward the larger co-op, or custom storages. No single answer seems logical, Hansen said. Choice of materials and equipment is. another impor tant factor. Success will de pend directly on whether ceil ings, and the floor are ade quately sealed against leak age so the required atmos phere can be attained and maintained after the room is loaded with fruit and closed Builders are inexperienced generally in this construction, Packers must make them aware of the need to take extra pains and precautions to obtain a seal that will per form. A tight seal is even more : important , for pears since they must be stored at lower temperatures and have a lower breathing activity which determines the rate at which excess oxygen is re moved from the storage room atmosphere. Sheet Metal Recommended Sheet metal should be used as a liner for remodeling stor age rooms for CA. California and Washington packers who have tried it have all been successful with metal lining. However in new construction, especially concrete construc tion gas - proof liners other than metal can be used Satis factorily. A smooth surface is needed for application of gas proofing material. Pears are different from ap ples in handling since they must be ripened after re moval from storage and before they are eaten. The fruit must be delivered to the consumer in good, edible condition with as much of the original quality as possible. Pears must be re moved from storage and mar keted while they still can be ripened with good quality. Residual life which fruit must i have after removal from stor age so it can. ripen properly must be considered. A warning sign that the al lowable storage period is end ing 'for Bartletts is a color change from green' to yellow, D'Anjou pears do not show such a marked color change when they reach the end of this period and suffer a loss of e a t i n g quality. Generally, D'Anjou pears, can , be kept until early March at storage temperatures of 30 degrees without serious quality loss. ' However, the same varieties in different pear-growing dis tricts may vary in this way, Generally,' past experience has shown that D Anjou pears marketed toward the end of the season tend to become dry and mealy, lack shelf life and often scald severely. Con ventional methods used in good handling and storage practices have not always been successful in correcting this problem, Hansen noted And this is the type of pear problem for which CA may offer a practical solution. Polyethylene Liners By using polyethylene film liners the atmosphere in each box has been modified enough to boost keepability and eating quality, according to early results. However, offsetting this benefit is oc currence of brown-core when carbon dioxide concentration in the sealed bag in the box becomes too high. "Until we have films of uni form permeability to carbon dioxide and until we know more about the seasonal vari ations in susceptibility of fruit to carbon dioxide injury, use of sealed film box liners cannot be. used safely, gener ally," the horticulturist warned. Favorable To D'Anjous The D'Anjou variety re sponds very favorably to CA storage, according to exper ience during the last four years. Tne late season devel opment of dry mealy jcondi tion has been successfully con trolled. Fruit can be ripened with excellent flavor and tex ture as late as May, Hansen reported. Shelf life has been improved greatly, also. Scale is not a problem where the oxygen has been maintained at 2 to 2.5 per cent. No flavor loss has been suffered under those conditions. This makes it possible to market the var iety over an extended season without any appreciable loss in original quality from the time the fruit is harvested. Gut disease losses on apples with protection that's proven best in the Northwest- Du Pont FERM ATE1 or ZERLATE ferbam fungicide ziram fungicide Here's a dependable and economical way to upgrade . the quality of your apples this year. Prevent diseases with Du Pont "Fermate" ferbam fungicide or "Zerlate" ziram fungicide. Over the years these fungicides have proven to be the most effective and economical means of preventing fruit disease in northwest orchards. The excellent disease protection you get from "Fermate" or "Zerlate" will help you produce a higher percentage of premium-quality fruit. ; DU PONT "FERM ATE" controls more fruit diseases than any other fungicide. On apples it prevents both scab and rust also protects against leaf spot, Brook's spot, black rot, apple blotch, bitter rot, sooty blotch, fly speck and blos som end rot v DU PONT "ZERLATE" prevents apple scab and bull's-eye rot as well. It k preferred by growers who want to use a light-colored fungicide. Protection with "Zerlate" also prevents storage decay caused by anthracnose and perennial canker. . , On all chemicals, always follow label inslmdums and yearnings earefuUj. mw FERMATE ZERLATE' KTTa THINGS FOI BOTH UVIN3 ...THOUGHCHEMSTKr ferbam fungicide - ziram fungicide MAIL TRIBUNE, Medford, Or. r Tuesday, March 8, 1960 Annual Meets Set By SG Two soil conservation districts will hold their an nual meetings this week and next, according to dis trict spokesmen. Annual meeting of the Rogue Soil Conservation district will be held at the Central Point Grange hall Thursday, March 10, at 8 p.m., according to C. W. Jensen, chairman of the board of supervisors. The program will include a report on progress of the Talent Irrigation project and expected impact of the project on agriculture of the area by Walter Hoffbuhr, Talent irrigation district manager, and Jack Nichols, bureau of reclamation of fice, Medford. Election of two super visors will be held, also. The annual meeting of the Sams Valley-Beagle Soil conservation district is scheduled for 8 p.m., March 21 in the Eagle Point Grange hall, according to E 1 w o o d Abbott, district chairman. Three supervisors will be elected, 1959 progress will be reviewed and 1960 plans for soiL water and plant conservation will be discussed. Best results have been ob tained with an atmosphere of less than 2 per cent carbon dioxide. A low level of car bon dioxide is required to prevent brown core, Hansen said: From the standpoint of scald control oxygen concen trations below 3 per cent have been most successful. A stor age temperature of 32 degrees has shown satisfactory results some seasons, the horticultur ist noted. However, when mealy breakdown has been serious some years best re sults have been obtained at 30 degrees. "We do not have adequate information on some prob lems involving actual han dling practices in CA rooms," Hansen stated. "More exper ience is needed commercially." One difficulty is inspecting the fruit for decay and condi tion during the storage period, Hansen pointed out. In CA rooms boxes are loaded in so only those near the door can be reached. ; . "In the final analysis, eco nomic feasibility of CA' stor age can be determined only by industry and the indi viduals concerned," the horti culturist concluded. "Fundar mentally, the industry must decide how much importance can be attributed to eating quality and how far it is will ing' to go in preserving this quality for the benefit of the consumer during handling, storage and marketing of the fruit." Traces History In tracing the history of CA storage, Hansen remarked that controlled atmosphere storage has been practiced in the New England apple grow ing region for 20 years. Only recently has this method been used commercially on the Pa cific coast, he pointed out. "Three years ago there were no CA storages' in our area (Oregon). This season approxi mately half a million boxes of apples and 75,000 boxes of pears are being handled in this way in California, Wash ington, Oregon and in British Columbia," the horticulturist continued. "Gas storage" was develop ed in New England for han dling apples subject to tissue injury when stored in cold temperatures,. Hansen said. When stored at higher temper atures, 38-40 degrees, injury did not occur but storage life of the fruit was too, limited for commercial purposes. By combining the modified at mosphere feature with 40 de gree temperature, fruit could be kept satisfactorily over a prolonged period of. time. "Due , to this method East ern - grown Mcintosh apples are strongly, competing with Northwest Delicious apples and possibly pears," Hansen pointed out. CA storage has been used also to control Jonathan spot in the Michi gan fruit district; CA storage also made it possible to . control internal browning in ifewtown apples in areas with cool growing seasons such as the Watson ville district in California. First commercial use of CA atmosphere storage in the west was for Newtown apples in California and Mcintosh ap ples in British Columbia. If feeder cattle have been eating high-shrinkage feeds like silage and: beet pulp, con dition them for several days before shipping by reducing the amount of grain and rich feeds and replacing with dry feeds. . mil GHfiT By JOI COWLEY . Mail Tribune Farm Editor When you bought a few cans of baby food perhaps you looked at the wee tins and thought as we did. What a deal! Wish I'd thought of this! And you probably thought as we did that cull fruits and vegetables are used to make this baby food-fruit and produce with slight defects caus ing its discard. ' But, that's not true! Gerber Baby Foods company, for instance, not only uses only the top grade raw materials but hires a large staff of agricultural specialists, field men and laboratory research men to make sure that fruits and vegetables produced for them are top quality, and trans ported and processed in the best, most economical way, : We learned all this from a pamphlet sent us by George W. Jones, principal horticulturist, Gerber Products company, Oakland, Calif. We were writing a letter to the horticul turist for a copy of his speech in handling Bartlett pears in bulk bins given in Medford before the-Northwest Perish able Shippers conference. We had long been curious about this baby foods company, so asked for some general in formation on the company. From Jones's speech we learned that the company has a large farm operation to back up its processing plants. The company processes more than 100 items and most of the processing techniques used are trade secrets, the company horticulturist hastily assured us. Right here the little wife snorts and remarks, "What's baby food got to do with farming? Why don't you write about, farming?" Little Bit, one of Mr. Gerber's leading consumers, had just pulled half the typewriter ribbon off the machine, giving the wife a chance to review our work. The Gerber' agricultural people are working on at least two developments which the local pear industry is watch ing closely. One is controolled atmosphere storage and the other is use of bulk pallet bins instead of the smaller lug boxes. Bhiefly, this new type of storage is aimed at con trolling the atmosphere or air surrounding the fruit in the warehouse so it will keep a high peak of quality longer. The pallet bins are equal to several of the smaller lug boxes. Using this method, the pickers dump the fruit from their buckets directly into the bins. The bins are designed to cut down on fruit handling, bruising, and time in get ting the fruit to the processor. The company is also experimenting with mechanical fruit and vegetable harvesting equipment. Its agricultural research department has developed an improved strain of Pink Banana squash. This variety has a high yield per acre and has a high quality and good color, consistency and flavor to make it highly suited to baby food processing. The company is also making fertility and irrigation studies The Gerber plants are' located in Freemont, Mich.; Oak land, Cam.; Asheville, N. C; Niagara Falls, Ont.; and Roch ester, N. Y. These plants naturally cover a wide variety of. agricultural conditions. The newest plant is at Asheville. It was put in opera tion last fall. First packs there included applesauce, sweet potatoes, soups and other items. Peas, green beans, spinach, carrots, beets Irish potatoes, quah and sweet potatoes are scheduled for processing. Fruit will include peaches, apples, ana eventually pears and apricots. Canada, too, has Its experiment stations. The Gerber pamphlet mentions the horticultural experiment station and products laboratory at Vineland near Niagara Falls. Ont, Growers who supply Gerber s rely oh it heavily, according to the pamphlet. This station studies varieties, pruning, soil management, planting, fruit maturity, pest control and phases of processing, marketing and related cultural . practices. In this area the Amber Gem peach was developed, noted lor its fine flavor, texture, color and consistency. The Fremont, Mich., plant is located in the Great Lakes area which covers a variety of soil types, has adequate rainfall and available water. In the section under Fremont, the pamphlet mentions that produce procurement is a year- around operation. Growers sign contracts with the company. As we have mentioned often, 4-H clubs and Future Farmers of America are important to agriculture's future. The company apparently feels so, too. The Gerber company actively supports these youth organizations. "Many of these youngsters have held contracts with the company and con tinued them as they gained Ifceir own farms," according to the company pamphlet. The Watsonville orchardists who send their apples to the Oakland plant were interested in extending their mar ket season when Gerber, university and construction rep resentatives started work on the controlled atmosphere stor age. The company claims to have pioneered this storage method in California. A spinach variety raised especially for baby food comes from the Alba and Walcott districts near the Rochester plant. Researchers have found mineral soils can possibly be used for spinach. New York state spinach growers nor mally raise it in muck soils. Another development at Rochester was- the mechanical harvesting of all the white seeded green beans needed for the plant. ; This plant also processes carrots, green beans, pears, plums, apples, sweet potatoe and Irish potatoes. So, when you buy some cans of baby food next time you will know of alf the' work and research which has gone into producing and processing that baby food. The Ford Farm Almanac suggests you start performance testing records now, mark the young livestock so they can be matched with-theh mothers later, remember fertilized pasture starts first, lasts longer, last chance for soil tests, get manure hauled, broadcast fertilizer before you plow. Meadow Mice Study Conducted Corvallis - Oregon's real- life Pied Piper is doing more than playing a tune to rid farmers of meadow mice. He's conducting long-term research near Klamath Falls to pin point years mice are expected to do most damage, and thus save money for Oregon agri culture. Edward L. Hansen, Oregon State college biologist, is try ing to discover as much as possible about habits of this pesky animal. By learning to predict ups and downs of meadow mouse populations, he hopes to save farmers from a heavy infestation like 1957 when mice cost the state's ag riculture millions of dollars. During peak population cy cles, meadow mice can dam age a great percentage of a crop, and also may damage range vegetation. When sur vival conditions are ideal, the mouse, population increases rapidly. In years when an increase is expected, spring would be the best time to start a con trol program because of breed ing habits of the mice, he points put. Reducing cover probably will reduce their numbers, Hansen believes. ;. - Mouse populations last year were quite low. Dry weather may have helped this. In some areas, less food was available and many, mice failed to sur vive. .: '-:.- In the current issue of the OSC agricultural experiment station's research magazine, "Oregon's Agricultural Prog ress," Hansen tells plans to construct mouse-proof enclos ures to determine effects of population levels on breeding activity and movement. In years ahead,' work for predic tion of ' population increases will be intensified, and a sim ple method of forecasting sought.,' If a method to evaluate in tensity of conditions excellent for reproduction survival and dispersion of young mice can be developed, scientists will have other important clues to the possibility of a damaging plague." . ' - Special Seeder for Developed Range Lands Corvallis - A special grass seeder that may revolutionize seeding on rough range lands and cut-over forest lands has been released by the Oregon State college agricultural ex periment station for commer cial use. Further development of the new-type seeder so it can be used on a wider variety of range and forest lands was recommended at a recent meeting of the inter-agency range seeding equipment com mittee, reports Dean E. Boost er, OSC agricultural engineer. The committee is made up of representatives from the bu reau of land management, U.S. forest service, bureau of Indian affairs, USDA agricul tural research service, and other governmental agencies. The seeder : will now be sent to the Arcadia Equipment Development center of the U.S. forest service, Arcadia, Calif., Booster said. There, it will undergo further develop ment so it can be used on range and forest lands of the 11 western states. The special grass seeder, known as "Desert Flower IV," was invented by Booster using principles developed by D.N Hyder and F. A. Sneva, range researchers at the Squaw Butte-Harney branch experi ment station near Burns. The sturdy new machine is able to seed in rough land covered with brush, stubble, and rocks. Before seeding with the new machine, brush on land needs to be killed by plowing or discing, Booster said. The wide wheels on the seeder use its great weight to pack the soil to make a firm seed bed, and at the same time open small seed furrows in the packed soil. Seed is dropped in the furrows, and covered with loose soil by heavy drag links. In tests on Oregon range and sagebrush lands, the spe cial soil firming and furrow placement of seed has given faster sprouting, 2 to 3 times more survival, and higher yields after grass stands are established than grass planted with conventional equipment. A one-quarter horsepower motor can do the work of 210 men. Seed Producers To Meet Friday Talent alfalfa seed pro ducers will meet in the Jackson county courthouse auditorium Friday. March 11. at 8 p.m., according to Gene Winters, county ex tension agent. ' Wallace Rice, manager of the Josephine Growers Co op, will give an up to dale report on the outlook on - the Greece market for the next few yean. Weed and .insect control for the next few years will be discussed, also. . x . ; Progress en the program to introduce alkali bees into prepared beds as a means to improve alfalfa seed yields will be report ed on. Winters said. After nine years of study, scientists at Kansas State uni versity conclude that grain is not necessary in the winter ration of heifer calves if the heifers get good quality rough age and a protein supplement. It's a good idea to identify heifer calves. Dairy scien tists point out the calves may be identified by ear tags, photographs or sketches showing color markings. Grazing on good legumes for 20 minutes is the bast vitamin pill for a pig. Deputies Forced To Shoot Prowler Dallas. Ore. (CPD A Polk i county sheriff's dapvtr finally had to shoot a prowl i er Sunday at the post office " here after firemen, police and even civil defense ? workers failed to scare the culprit off. The intruder was spotted outside the post office and authorities feared he was , attempting to get in. After a fruitless chase around the . building. Deputy Virgil -Taylor dispatched the un-' wanted visitor. It was a skunk. House Passes Bill j Naming McKay Dam Washington-dJPD-The House has passed a bill designating Detroit dam on the North San tiam river as Douglas McKay dam in honor of the late Ore gon governor and secretary of interior. Detroit, or McKay, is one of the army engineer dams in the Willamette basin project. McKay, as secretary of inter ior, was present at its dedica tion. Sen. Richard L. Neuberger (D-Ore.) proposed last year that the name of Green Peter dam on the middle fork of the Santiam be changed to , Mc Kay. 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