SCIENCE WAS RIGHT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20917, 6 January 1930, Page 12

SCIENCE WAS RIGHT.

lODINE TEST FOR APPLES. In Western Australia a method is used for determining the stage of maturity which an apple has reached, and this is a useful means of ascertaining when particular samples of fruit are likely to contract bitter pit ou'storage. The test in question is dependent on the use of iodine and on its effect ou the starch content of the cut apples. An interesting example of the value of the method has arisen as the result of a recent occurrence. An officer of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture was called into consultation by the inspecting officers concerned, in connection with an early shipment of apples from Western Australia. After testing the fruit by the iodine method he pronounced it as immature and liable to excessive development of pit during the storage period necessary for its export to England. For this reason, lie was of the opinion that it should not be exported, and in consequence a very considerable proportion of the proposed shipment was not sent. At the time, the wisdom of this decision was seriously questioned by the owners of the fruit and their agents, particularly in its application to the variety Cox's Orange Pippin. The fruit of this variety, which is an early maturing one, was considered by the agents to be ripe enough tor export. Sonic growers were so convinced that the decision was wrong that they placed a number of the rejected cases' in cold storage and arranged that officers of the department should see them opened at the time when the vessel that was to have taken them arrived in London. This was done, the fruit being taken out of cold store and examined early m April in the preserve of the superintendent of horticulture and the agent? c mcerncd. The result showed the need for the rejection, as the fruit •opened up in a very badly pitted condition. , In a subsequent examination cf some cases of this fruit over !H) per cent, of the larger sited apples were affected, and while the condition was not quite so evident in the smaller apples, it nevertheless existed to the extent of over 70 per cent, in the smaller sizes.