PROCEEDINGS OF TPIE ANNUAL MEETING 103 



I'lul'. Tiacy: Kept the circulation around the outside; and we found it 

 was very necessary to nialce that shaft in the middle quite tight. We 

 made it loose in the first place, and we did not get anything like so good 

 results, n(U' did we get so good results until we ]iut the straw in. 



Mr. Morrill: Yon have practically a circle of bins clear around that 

 shaft, at some distance from it — a little distance. 



Prof. Trac3': Well, the onions come up almost in contact with the 

 shaft. 



Mr. Morrill: You have a door in that to close or ojien? 



Prof. Tracy: We have a door in the shaft to go through and build our 

 fire. We have a door from the outside by which to enter, and we go right 

 through that door, closing it very closely. The door that we built into 

 the house originally is not directly opposite the door in the center of the 

 shaft, but we go around the path in that way. 



Q: What is the size of the house? 



IM'of. Tracy: It is big enough to contain, I think it was 8.700 bushels of 

 onions. It was quite a large house. I should say it was sixty feet long 

 and I know that it was thirty-two feet wide, because I remember we used 

 two lengths of boards on the ends. The whole idea is simply 

 this: Make an air-tight box, put in the center of it an air-tight shaft; 

 put your fruit in bins in the center of this space with an air-chamber all 

 around between the fruit and the wall, and have free access from this out- 

 side passage, or air-space, to the bottom of the shaft, and also have 

 an opening into the bottom of the shaft and one at the top over the 

 fruit. We used that same house this summer to store roots, beets, carrots, 

 etc., which we wished to keep back and set out for seeding and which had 

 been buried through the winter. We wanted to examine each root as to 

 shape and color of flesh, and so wanted to keep them fresh and unwilted 

 for some time, and we were perfectly surprised to see how" admirably we 

 could keep the temperature down in thfit house and preserve the roots 

 until way- into the summer perfectly fresh and unwilted. There is an- 

 other thing of which I wish to speak. I do not think there is any feature 

 of I*rof. Taft's house which is more desirable than that ventilating shaft 

 on the outside of the building. I was very much impressed with that 

 when I heard a description of it. The Mexicans use a somewhat similar 

 principle in their houses. Down in Arizona, where I was, during the hot- 

 test part of the summer, all the houses of the old residents have false 

 roofs an inch or two above the other, giving an opportunity for the air to 

 circulate, and a great many of the walls are built with just that idea — 

 an exterior wall protecting from the sun's rays, and I think it is one of 

 the most efficient things of the whole system. 



Mr. Morrill: I built an ice-house about eight years ago. I had always 

 had difficulty in kee])ing a small body of ice. fifteen or twenty tons, that 

 we put up for our own use, and I did not wish to build it larger. So I' 

 put this same false outside, separated an inch and a half from the main 

 building, just exactly as you do, and I never saw a house keep ice any 

 better, I never saw as good a little house for keeping ice as I have now. 

 Last year, at the meeting of the State Horticultural society of Illinois, 

 Mr. Dunlap had a very comprehensive and complete article on the home 

 storage of apples. There are a good many extensive apjile-growers in 

 Illinois, as some of you are aware, and the question of storage was dis- 



