Keeping Fruit. 179 



because I did not know what the temperature actually was. One 

 cannot judge correctly by the feelings, for, coming from a warm 

 room into the cellar, it seems quite cool, and you are satisfied that 

 it is about right. This winter I determined to regulate it more 

 carefully, and bought three or four thermometers, and hung them 

 up in different parts of the cellar. It was soon evident that the 

 tendency had been to keep it too warm. By these thermometers 

 I could tell what the temperature was, and, if too high, could 

 easily reduce it by opening the ventilators. It has been very- 

 near the freezing point all winter; in fact one of the thermome- 

 ters has stood a little below it for six weeks, without any percep- 

 tible variation. Everything has kept well. I am satisfied that it. 

 is not wise to attempt to keep fruit or vegetables in our cellars 

 without thermometers. 



B. S. Hoxie — It may be easy to keep the cellar at a low and 

 even temperature in such a winter as the present, but how would 

 you do in such a season as the one last year ? 



Mr. Wood — You can regulate it by the weather outside. If 

 it is cold outside, and you want to reduce the temperature of the 

 cellar, open the door or windows. If the weather turns warm 

 outside, shut the cellar up tight. There are days in every season 

 when you can reduce the temperature within by exposure, and 

 then, when cool enough, you can shut it up and retain a low tem- 

 perature for some time. 



Gr. J. Kellogg — There is no trouble in keeping the tempera- 

 ture low enough this winter, but the main trouble has been to 

 keep it from getting too low. Many cellars have frozen up, not- 

 withstanding all efforts to keep the frost out. Some of us are 

 anxious to know how to raise the temperature when too cold, and 

 how to keep our fruit from freezing. A slisrht covering over 

 apples will protect them from injury, even where the temperature 

 remains two or three degrees below freezing for a number of 

 weeks, and they will keep all the better for it, but if it goes 

 much below this they are not safe. Most cellars have no place 

 for setting up a stove. I would like to know if any have used 

 oil stoves successfully. I have been fighting frost for the past six 

 weeks, and have succeeded in keeping the cellar at two degrees 

 below freezing, by kettles of coals from a wood fire. 



