PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANNUAL MEETING 105 



it looks pcculiai- to mv (hat lluy should uot put the houses down to 

 freezing point and leave them there until they want the fruity and then put 

 it into another and warmer room to thaw out gradually. I never asked the 

 question. It looks to nie as if there is something in it for somebody, if it is 

 true. This old giaitleman said he tilled a piano-box and set it against the 

 north side of his barn and nailed the cover down after having filled it 

 with apples, and he took them out in the spring in perfect condition. 

 There are numerous instances, too, where men have reported having bar- 

 rels of apples left in out-buildings all winter, where they did not get varia- 

 tion of temperature — that is, where they were not exposed to the sun and 

 did not thaw out as readily when once frozen, and remained so until 

 spring. As the l*rofessor says, if they can be frozen and remain without 

 anv disturbance, thev will come out all right. 



^Ir. Kellogg: You put a good deal of emphasis on the fact that they 

 should not be disturbed or exposed to the light and air. 



Mr. Morrill: This gentleman says you should not let the light in on 

 them. He makes a square bin and then puts on a roof of boards, but he 

 says where he put some straw on top of some, one time, he lost a lot. 

 He says, " Just keep the light and air from them. Put a slanting roof 

 above so that the water will not run into them, and leave them alone. 

 If they do freeze they will stay frozen until warm weather, and you will 

 have good apples. Keep everything oft", and do not touch them nor even 

 look at them." He says he has raised the boards and could see frost six 

 inches deep all over the apples. 



Prof. Tracy: I think the best talk I ever gave on horticultural matters 

 was wheu I was at college, and it was the first year I attempted to say 

 anything about horticulture to students. We had quite a crop of onions 

 that year, and they were put down in the basement of the college building. 

 They were spread out on the floor two feet thick, and after school opened 

 in February they were covered with straw. I do not remember the year, 

 but it was a class of boys that were to study horticulture. 1 went down 

 there and took the straw carefully oil of that pile of onions, and with a 

 stick I wrote the name of that class on those onions, just as they were,, 

 and covered them up and left them until the next spring. We did not sell 

 them until late in the season, and when we came to open them, where 

 they were disturbed you could read that " Class of '62 " or " '61," whatever 

 it was, in decayed onions. Every onion touched by that stick was decayed or 

 sprouted ; there w\is a row of green and decayed onions just as I had marked 

 it there. Down in Connecticut thev have raised a great manv onions vear- 

 ly for two or three generations. They store them almost invariably in out- 

 buildings or barns, in bins, arranged something in the way I have sug- 

 gested, and I remember very well going with Mr. Wells to a building to- 

 look at his onions. The barn door slipped out of his hand, shutting with a 

 slam, and he said that the onions were disturbed and injured by mere- 

 noise. No one could have shown more irritation or annoyance and anxiety 

 than Mr. Wells did, as he saw that barn door slam to, because, he said, 

 " That will spoil some onions." The simple idea was that the barn door 

 slamming and jarring the onions while frozen meant to him a loss. That 

 was fifteen or tw^enty years ago, and that is the sentiment they have there 

 of the importance of not disturbing onions. Now. I think the difference- 

 between the success of this man in Illinois and that of a great manv others 

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