Plant crossing is certainly the best-known aspect of the fruit and vegetable research at the national plant and soil laboratory at Beltsville, it makes up only one-third of the total work. Nutrition of crops, and soil management studies, development and testing of root-stocks for fruit trees and the causes and control of disease-fungus, bacterial and virus, fill in the picture. There is no space here to tell the whole story of the Bureau's work. It encompasses the whole range of growing things; from analysis of the soil itself to the best means of wrapping and shipping the fruits and vegetables finally produced.
One branch, however, graphically depicts the variety of effort at Beltsville. This is the cold-storage plant where the effects of growing practices and the date of picking, on storage quality of apples and other fruits are discovered. These efforts are almost entirely commercial, the heaviest emphasis being on practicality. To illustrate, let us choose the cantankerous apple that caused the original Adam so much trouble. Apple dealers were surprised to find that cold storage, far from protecting, seemed Ito hasten decay of some apples. These fruits were infected with "scald," a brown discolorations that gradually deepens. It does not appear until the apples have been in cold storage six weeks or longer.
It is worse in cold storage than in cellar storage. The disease is not fully understood, but it was found that a probable cause were the acetaldehyde and various esters that emanate from the apple. Since apples in commercial storage are tightly packed, these odorous vapours become concentrated. Better aeration helped, but could not be obtained in tight packing-a feature necessary in commercial storage. Various absorptive materials such as charcoal, vegetable oils, animal fats and oiled paper were used. The last was most practical. It stopped the scald and was economical. It made possible the sale of apples the year around. The oiled wrappers developed at the Bureau's cold storage plants saved apple growers $2,000,000 a year. Yet the research involved cost only $25,000.
Once again a little money given to science hit the jackpot for an industry. It is impossible to estimate how greatly agricultural science contributed to America's vast war program. Perhaps the best way to estimate is to recall that no American serviceman went hungry in any field of action from the beachheads of Normandy to the cliffs of Okinawa. Feeding that army of men and women was the greatest attainment of agriculture in the history of sun and soil and ploughshare. Now, with most of his servicemen back in their well-fed homes, Uncle Sam again turns to his scientists and farmers. They must help feed the hungry millions in Europe and Asia whose farms and orchards were scorched by war. Food helped win the war. Tomorrow it may well write the peace.
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