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: "The process, whether with early or long keeping fruits, consists in keeping them in 
an equable, moderately dry condition, a few degrees above the freezing point. This low 
temperature may be produced by different methods, although it is usually secured by 
the use of ice, in a room with double walls, ceiling and floor, packed between with dry 
sawdust or other cheap non-conducting substance, or by the use of what are known as 
dead air chambers. 
Since the warmer air is always found in the upper part of the room, the ice box is 
placed there ; and since the gaseous results of decay are heavier than atmospheric air, 
the opening, if any, provided for their removal should be placed very near the door of 
the room. The ice box will necessarily be the coldest object in the room, for which 
reason any excess of moisture in the air of the room will be condensed upon it, and this 
will the more readily occur if its surface is of metal. It must therefore be supplied 
with the means of collecting such condensed moisture, together with the drip from the 
ice, and carrying the same outside the building ; the discharge pipe should be provided 
with a trap to prevent the admission of the warmer air from without. 
The fruits to be held should be in as perfect a condition as possible ; rather under 
than over ripe ; and may be in moderate sized packages, or placed directly upon shelves. 
Bruised or decayed fruits should be rigorously excluded. Such arrangement will be 
found useful also for the preservation of perishable culinary and other articles, 
The arrangements for the preservation of the longer keeping fruits differ from the 
foregoing mainly in dispensing with the use of ice ; and, instead, securing the needful 
low temperature by employing a system of ventilation, by means of which the outer air 
may be admitted, when its temperature is low enough for the purpose, excluding it at 
other times. The fruit should be gathered with the utmost care, when not over ripe, 
all bruised or decayed specimens excluded, and the packages placed at once in the 
retarding house, the temperature of the same having been already reduced as low as 
practicable by opening the vertilators during cold nights and closing them before a rise 
__ of the outer temperature. The effect of this will be to avoid the continuance of the 
ripening procéss consequent upon the comparatively warm weather which so frequently 
occurs after fruits are gathered, bringing the fruit thus treated down to the final advent 
of winter, slightly if at all changed from its concition when gathered—an important 
point gained, especially in the more southerly portions of the apple growing regions of 
our country. 
A building for this purpose may be constructed of cheap material, if only the work 
of packing or insulating be so thoroughly done as to effectively avoid circulation of air, 
save when admitted through the system of ventilation. 
Admission to the room should be through double doors, and light should be 
admitted only when needful in conducting operations. 
Fresh air is admitted through a passage from beneath at some central point in the 
- fruit room which should draw its supply from the free outside atmosphere, and should 
be susceptible of being easily and tightly closed at pleasure. This passage should 
extend to near the ceiling, admitting the incoming air only at that point ; which will 
thus displace the warmer air which will have risen to that position. 
Carbonic acid and other products of decay will, if present, occupy the lower por- 
tions ofthe room. To insure the removal of these the pipe for the discharge of the 
outgoing air should start from near the ffoor, passing up through the attic and above the 
roof, but with its principal opening at cr near the ceiling, to be used for the removal of 
the warmer air, when the temperature is to be reduced. These passages also should be 
kept tightly closed, except during the process of ventilation. 
If both air ducts are opened when the contained air is warmer than the outer 
atmosphere, the warmer air will pass freely upward and be as freely replaced by the 
cooler air from the lower duct. This process will continue till the temperatures within 
and without the room are equalised. 
It may, however, become desirable to change the air of the preservatory when the 
temperatures are such that a spontaneous movement of the air cannot occur. To 
provide for such necessity the upper ventilating duct should be of metal—ordinary sheet 
