Why Apples Redden Activity in another branch of country life
is reported also from Norfolk. The horticulturists of the County Council have been proceeding with a number of experiments, one of them at any rate of extreme ingenuity. It was discovered that by exposing apples to the sun after picking they could be coloured to a deep red ; and this art has been practised in the county by commercial growers. I saw-:-and ate- Cox's almost as red as a Jonathan. Such reddening may cause later shrivelling and diminish the keeping qualities. To remedy this a Northan light was tried and was quite as effective. The fact seemed to be that the colour was evolved principally by the ultra violet rays of the sky light. It is an inference from this that mercury vapour lamps would do the work even better, and this method is to be tried out th!s year, and preliminary experiments have already proved that the apples respond. The public, of course, have no justification for preferring red apples to green or yellow ; but unfortunately such prejudices must be observed by the grower. The annual report (in which some brief account of this experiment appears) will be sent free to any applicant anywhere, on request to the Horticultural Superintendent, 30 Cattle Market Street, Norwich.
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