268 GATHERING, MARKETING, AND FRriT-KOOMS. 



may be exposed on shelreSj but pears should be inclosed in 

 boxes with tight-fitting covers, or if the quantity is large, in well- 

 made barrels, headed up. A fruit-house, thus arranged and man- 

 aged, would be a profitable adjunct to a fruitery. But for most 

 amateurs, a dark closet in the house, or a room fitted up in the 

 cellar, or even the cellar itself, kept clean and sweet, will suffice. 

 For small quantities of pears, cheese-boxes, with close covers, have 

 been found cheap and convenient. These should be always freed 

 from the odor of cheese, by cleansing in hot water, with soda or 

 potash. It has been recommended and practiced by many to wrap 

 pears in paper, cotton, and similar substances ; but I have found 

 all such preparations worse than useless. They not only absorb 

 the moisture of the pears more rapidly than the atmosphere, but 

 they abstract the aroma of the fruit, and leave it comparatively 

 tasteless. These substances being carbonaceous, act as absorbents 

 of the peculiar flavor, like charcoal. 



Mr. Barry informed me, that after many years of experience, 

 he had found the most effective means of preserving winter pears 

 to be : late gathering ; packing away carefully none but sound 

 fruit, in close barrels, leaving them in an open shed, only protected 

 from rain and direct rays of the sun, as long as the temperature is 

 above the freezing-point. 



The practical difficulties in the use of fruit-rooms seem to have 

 been overcome by Mr. Schooley. The accompanying plan of his 

 Preservatory has appeared in the Country Gentleman, and Ameri- 

 can Agriculturist. From the latter, the description of its con- 

 struction, and the rationale of its effect is extracted. 



Our illustration represents one-half of a building, supposed to 

 be divided tlu-ough the middle, from the ridge-pole to the ground, 

 in order to better show the interior arrangements. This structure 

 may be a large one, twenty or thirty feet each way, or only a 

 small room of but a few feet in size. 



The side-walls, w. w^ and the lower and upper floors, / and u. 

 are made double, being filled in with saw-dust. The upper floor, 

 however, consists of a single layer of boards, nailed upon the under 

 side of the joists, with the saw-dust piled on loosely, a foot or more 

 in thickness. Above this, is an open space or garret, under the 



