THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 100, 25 April 1912, Page 6

THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.

CfOLD STORAGE EXPERIMENT

A number of fruit-growers gathered «t the rosiden'w.of Mr F. Sisson, Pat>knui, laiifc w'wi, when the openiri'

ceremony in connection with the first cool chamber and refrigerating pfowitj to* be installed in a New Zealand ■ .orchard was performed. In America, and" in a lesHU" degree in Australia, cool chambers and refrigerating plants ■are in common use, but until now t-he experiment of. placing apples &s soon .as possible after picking in a steatcly low temperature of from 36 to 42 <.c----grees Fahr. has not been tried in uho 'Dominion. • ■ ■' . Mr Sisson,- in explaining to the visitors the advantages of cold storage said that he had always been of, the opinion that apples could.be kept ma comparatively low temperature, and to that end1 he had experimented by building a. cool chamber having-. doupUi brick wa.lls filled with sawdust,ana a roof similarly treated. That experi.mont, however, had not been ; aJfc; !r gather successful, as the apples aad kept no better.than when, placed in the old" straw-thatched place previcns--ly used. He then decided to obticj a complete refrigerating outfit. A .special building had been constructor..! '40ft. by 25ft. inside measurements, capable of holding 4500 bushel cases. The walls of this chamber were double ■consisting of nine inches of bricic, ■three, inches of. "dead air," |in. board-ing,-'a- covering of malthoid, fin. of further boarding, and then another wall. ; Mr .Sisson added that if his scheme succeeded it would enable local fruit to' take the place of imported fruit, ■so that apples would be available s.t ail times at a reasonable price. Fewyears ,«go, when in Australia, he visited a. ferm which' hadI'two cool rooms; ' now -that farm had ten stores, each of.'. iVhicli ■ was "similar in size to the Papanui one; the first to be installed in tlie Dominion. If the scheme vms to • suoeeedi, the* storage would have 1 v be alongside the -orchard' itself, ms fruit began to ripen as soon as it was picked. ■ ..•■ : ■■■■'■