BLIGHTING INFLUENCE

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 49, 21 November 1932, Page 9

BLIGHTING INFLUENCE

Emanations from Apples BIOLOGISTS PUZZLED London, Nov. 7. The apple has far more to answer for than the fall of man in Eden, according to a famous scientist, Sir William Bate Hardy. It has, he declared, a blighting influence upon vegetables, and even young apples come under the evil spell of their elders. Addressing the Refrigeration Association, Sir William, who is director of food investigation at the Department of Scientific Research, surprised the biologists by alluding to these mysterious emanations of the apple. An apparently harmless stream, of air, passing over apples, contains subtle emanations which profoundly influence other vegetables, he said. Potatoes placed in the air-stream have either failed to sprout or the sprouts have been mis-shapen dwarfs, like warts Bananas have been stimulated by the emanations to unusually rapid ripening. Only elderly apples, it was said, pour out these emanations, which also cause young apples to ripen quickly. The physiological activity of the emanations must be prodigious, equalling and even exceeding snake venom. Biologists are puzzled regarding the nature and purpose of the emanations. It has long been recognised, Sir William Hardy said, that there is a sort of communal herd instinct in apples stored together. They ripened at much the same rate. Possibly the mysterious emanations are agents of this communal control power.