RIPENING FRUIT

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 128, 3 June 1927, Page 3

RIPENING FRUIT

A NEW DISCOVERY

SUBSTITUTE FOR SUNSHINE

(From "The Post's" Representative.) SAN FKANCISOO, 3rd May. A discovery in chemistry, worth millions of pounds to the fruitgrowing industry, has been announced at the annual convention of the American Chemical Society. Ethylene gas, it was stated, will, within a few hours, ripen fruit which would require days or weeks to ripen in the sunshine on the trees. Danger of disease was said to be avoided. ■ The product is said to be more palatable. The fruit crop, instead of being dumped on the market all at once, might be distributed over weeks, thereby saving the producer money and providing the consumer with good fruit at reasonable prices for a longer time than usual. Dr. K. B. Harvey, of the College of Agriculture in St. Paul, was'th* discoverer of the method. Scientist* at the convention observed that this was one of the greatest contributions to agriculture for many years. Ethyleue gas, each molecule of which contains two atoms of carbon and four of hydrogen, may be produced in unlimited quantities very cheaply, It takes a very small amount of this gas, released in air, to ripen, a closed chamber full of groen fruit. j The discovery is an extension to ano- I thcr field of a process already well .known to botanists, and commercially practised by bulb growers. Tulips, daffodils, and other flowers are forced to the ripening stage by treatment with chloroform, to get blooms in early winter, when they would otherwise be dormant. It is well known that bananas are ripened by treatment in a cellar with gentle gas heat.