MY APPLE STORAGE HOUSE. 455 



Mr. Howard : You can put them in vvet and the next morning 

 they will come out perfectly dry. 



Prof. Green: That dry air absorbs the moisture? 

 Mr. Howard : Yes, it absorbs the moisture, and they become 

 dry again. That kind of a storage house is as good as any farmer 

 needs for the purpose. 



Mr. Martin : How have you provided for ventilation ? 

 Mr. Howard : It is an airtight building. The warm air is 

 driven under the ice and forms a circulation. 



Mr. Martin : Is the ice laid close so that the only way the cold 

 air can escape is underneath ? 



Mr. Howard : The cold going down cannot go through the 

 studding ; the studding is made of slat work and they overlap. The 

 ice being colder the cold air goes down underneath and the warm 

 air goes up through the slat work. 



Mr. Martin : They are lapped down ? 



Mr. Howard : Yes, from three-quarters to one inch. The cold 

 air cannot come out because it settles. 

 Mr. Penning: Does it not freeze? 



Mr. Howard : Yes, it does. If I were building another I 

 would not make it just like this one. I would make it so it would 

 not freeze. The first two years it didn't freeze, but now it does, 

 and I have either got to paper and side it again inside or outside. I 

 don't want to lose any more room. 



Mr. Penning : The sawdust will settle in time. 

 Mr. Howard : Yes, the sawdust settles so it freezes now. 

 Another thing, I don't use any ice in the fall after the 20th of Octo- 

 ber ; after that time I don't need any ice. I open the building and 

 let it get cold and then shut it up. 



Mr. Taylor : What kind of paper do you use ? 

 Mr, Howard : Common building paper, the red rosin building 

 paper. You don't want to use tarred paper. 



Mr. Elliot : Can you put a cold storage house on top of that ? 

 Mr. Howard: Yes, I intend the basement to be for storage 

 and the present storage room to be the packing room. 



Mr. Elliot : In speaking of sawdust, they have at Winona a 

 factory where they make a sort of flax felt, and that is the very 

 best thing to pack in. It is made by hand, and when you pack it in 

 there is no settling.They call it flax felt. 



Mr. Howard : I saw that at St. Louis, and I thought it was 

 perfect. 



Mr. Marsh : I have been a great deal interested in this topic, 

 but it seems to me there is one thing that might be improved, and 

 that is the method of making a building warm, I think the prin- 

 ciples are of general application, particularly in farmers' buildings. 

 The only warm building material we have is air, as I demonstrated 

 two years ago, and if we can confine that air we have a warm 

 building, and while Mr. Howard finds the use of wood satisfactory 

 it seems to me plaster would be more effective. Regarding this 

 Winona flax fibre. It costs practically the same as back plaster, and 

 I doubt whether it is as effective as back plaster if made of a hard 



