206 



JOURNAL OF HOBTICULTDEK AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



i;;Septemb«rl2, 1665. 



appearance of the berries it closely resembles the Frankenthal, 

 or Victoria Hamburgh as it is sometimes called. 



De Ret. — This is evidently meant for the Uva de Eey of 

 Spaiti ; but this must be a misnomer, as, according to Clemente, 

 the Uva de Eey is white. The variety sent by Mr. Lindsay is 

 red. It produces a fine large bunch, remarkably well set, and 

 fine round Hamburgh-like berries. The skin is thick, and of 

 a uniform dark red, somewhat of the colour of Gros Gromier du 

 ■Cautal, and adheres closely to the flesh, which is tender, very 

 sweet, and of fine flavour ; but the centime is hollow, as in the 

 Dutch Hamburgh. The ben-ies adhere very closely to the 

 stalks, and, indeed, show a tenacity in this respect such as we 

 hjive never met with in any other Grape ; it is, doubtless, on 

 this account that the variety is so well adapted for drying ; the 

 bunch sent us having the berries, though still plump, in the 

 condition of almost a sweetmeat. 



Chtpbe fixo we cannot say much about. 



We are much obUged to Mr. Lindsay for his valuable com- 

 munication.] 



GATHERING AND STORING FRUIT. 



The essentials of a fruit-room are — first, a low and equable 

 temperature; secondly, exclusion of air andUght ; and thirdly, 

 freedom from frost and damp. 



Warmth tends to ripening, causing fruits that are capable of 

 long keeping to be fit for use days and even weeks earlier than 

 they would be if kept in a low temperature ; and this early ma- 

 turity of the fruit is had at the expense of its juiciness and 

 flavour. When the temperature is variable it acts prejudicially 

 on the keeping of the fruit, by at one time tending to ripen 

 and at another to a retarding oif that process. A variable tem- 

 perature is a most prolific source of fruit not keeping, and it is 

 destructive of every good quality of the fruit. The fruit very 

 often decays at the core before it is fully ripe, and sometimes 

 rots, and is seldom melting and deUcious, but mealy and 

 •flavourless. 



The exclusion of air acts as a preservative, for the oxygen of 

 the air is necessaiy for decay. The presence of air is needed 

 for the elaboration of saccharine matter ; but as fruit-rooms are 

 for the preservation of fruit, that which tends to ripening should 

 be carefully excluded, of which air and Ught are the next in 

 importance to warmth. 



Freedom from frost is important in the keeping of fruit, for 

 the cells of the fruit are ruptured by frost, and their juices 

 then speedily pass from fermentation to putrefaction on the 

 fruit thawing. 



Damp is no great evil in itself, and does not necessarily lead 

 to decay unless accomjjanied by warmth and the presence of 

 air. But inasmuch as it tends to and hastens decay, damp 

 should be avoided ; but even slight damp is better than dry- 

 ness with warmth, and the presence of hght and atmospheric 

 air, for the presence of these are indispensable for the ripening 

 of fruit, and frequently convert the long-keeping into short, 

 and juicy fruit into shrivelled, sweet, but juiceless, and some- 

 times mealy instead of buttery. 



Now, to secure the essentials above named, nothing answers 

 so well as a dry cellar or room underground. It secures a low 

 and equable temperature, the exclusion as much as is practi- 

 cable of air and light, and freedom from frost and also damp, 

 especially of that kind resulting from a thaw. The coolness and 

 equable temperature of a cellar is desirable because we wish to 

 keep the fruit without ripening or decay to the longest period, 

 warmth tending to ripen and cold to a retarding of that pro- 

 cess ; light and the presence of atmospheric air hastening, and 

 their exclusion securing in contact with the fruit the carbonic 

 acid emitted by it in ripening, which is well known to be 

 one of the best 'preventives of decay. A cool dry cellar, there- 

 fore, answers more fully the requirements of a fruit-room than 

 anv other description of room. 



i am aware that this is directly opposed to the desirabilities 

 of a fruit-room insisted on by many excellent authorities. 

 What is chiefly sought for by 'them is dryness, but there is 

 such a thing as' too di-y a room for fruit. So long as there is 

 no deposition of moisture on the fruit the room is not in the 

 least too damp, and when the fruit shrivels the room is 

 certainly too drv, and though it may not lead to decay, it 

 certainly does impair the juiciness, and the firmness and beauty 

 of the fruit are gone. 



Extremes of either dryness or moisture are the attendant 

 evils of fruit-rooms on 'first and second floors. They are at 

 times very drv, especially during the prevalence of windy 



frosty weather, when artificial heat may be necessary to keep 

 out frost, and at others they are very damp, rendering fire heat 

 necessary as a means of drying up the moisture that runs 

 down the walls. The employing of fire heat is in itself suffi- 

 cient to stamp fruit-rooms requiring it as not adapted to their 

 purpose, for we do not want to keep fruit warm but cool, yet 

 we must have a fire during warm damp weather, especially that 

 following a thaw, in order to keep the room sufficiently diy, 

 and we thus make bad worse, for in addition to firing air must 

 be given, and thus we have an excess of damp, warmth, and 

 air, all contingencies promoting decay. I do not hesitate in 

 stating that fniit, especially Apples, would keep much better, 

 more p!ump, and sound, pitted like Potatoes, than in many 

 fruit-rooms which are reaUy not calculated for keeping fruits, 

 but to hasten their ripening, and cause them to decay long 

 before their customary period. I am not writing upon hypo- 

 thesis hut from experience, which has taught me that a cool 

 room, an equable temperature, darkness, and moderate dryness 

 are necessary for the preservation of fruit. Fruit-rooms on 

 first and second floors are good places for ripening fruit, and it 

 is next to impossible to keep it in them without a large per- 

 centage of waste.' 



The site of the fruit-room should be dry, and if not so natur- 

 ally it must be made so, and have a north aspect. The best 

 are those with a room underground for the late-keeping, and a 

 room above ground for those fruits that are not long-keeping, 

 and are more or less in a stage of ripening when taken fi'om 

 the trees. In constructing a fruit-room the soil should be taken 

 out 9 feet deep, and 2 feet wider on each side than the required 

 width ; 18 feet being a very convenient width, allowing of bins 

 a yard wide all round, and a centre one of G feet divided into 

 halves by a partition up the midiUe, and it may be of any 

 length, and, of course, of whatever dimensions that the quantity 

 of fruit will require. Along the centre a drain should be laid, 

 and one all round the outside of the foundation of the walls 

 and communicating with the centre drain. The flags of which 

 the floor is formed should rest on piUars a foot higher than 

 from whence the soil was taken, and under no consideration 

 be laid on the soil. This foot of space beneath the floor is 

 to be filled with rubble. The walls are to be built hollow, 

 and to insure stabiHty, have throughs every other course. 

 The air we want enters the cellar by drain-pipes with the 

 joints cemented, extended from and communicating with the 

 hollow space in the wall, and thence passing under the floor and 

 opening out through the pathway, a hole being cut in the 

 flags for the purpose, the pipes having a bent end on purpose, 

 their opening or mouth being stopped with a plug. Six of the 

 drain pipes (three on eacli side), one end communicating with 

 the hollow or cavity in the wall, and the other opening into 

 the cellar at the floor in the pathway, as before mentioned, 

 will be sufficient. The wall is to be carried up hollow for 

 7 feet, and there the throughs must be mortared so as to divide 

 the hollow part below from that above, and just below tlvis ail,' 

 holes are to be left in the outer wall correspouchiig to those 

 left in the inner wall at the base of the building. The wall 

 is then to be built hollow as before for 1 foot, and then 

 throughs again, and mortared as if the wall were solid. There 

 will be openings left in this part both of the interior and ex- 

 terior walls to allow of any vapour that may arise in the cellar 

 passing out at the upper part, and its place being occupied with 

 colder and fresh air by those openings from the floor, advantage 

 being taken of a dry frosty day. The wall is then built hollow 

 as before for 9 feet above the roof of the cellar, which, ot course, 

 will be the first floor, and there is the same means appUed to 

 admit air at the floor and to allow the damp and vitiated air to 

 escape at top. The room on the first floor will, of course, have 

 its ceiling, and the tiles^or slates will be laid on asphalt. There 

 will be caps for all the openings to admit or let out air, and 

 whilst we have no windows in the cellar, we must have two in 

 that room on the ground floor and furnished with shutters 

 inside. The outside walls are to he coated when dry with 

 boiling coal tar, and have three of such coatings. All round, 

 as there is a two-feet space, rubble is to be placed against the 

 cellar walls and level with the surface, and it is not there to be 

 covered with sods, or turf, or soil, but with coarse gravel. 

 Under present arrangements we shall have no damp but what 

 comes from the interior, of which we will now treat. We have 

 a trough or bin a yard wide all round formed of stone, and 

 9 inches in depth," excepting where the steps are, and above 

 this, at 2 feet, we have another shelf or bin, and at every 2 feet 

 upwards another, and a fourth 2 feet higher than it. The first is 

 9 inches in depth, and the second likewise, the next 6, and the 



