COLD STORAGE FOR FRUIT GROWERS. 



ing platform opens out from the ground 

 room 



The upper figure given is a cross 

 section of the cold storage part of the 

 building. The foundation is of stone 

 and five feet in the ground. The piers 

 for the posts that support the ice floor, 

 of which there are thirty, are four feet 

 square at the base, tapering to twelve 

 inches at the top. On these are heavy 

 cast-iron plates (B), upon which the 

 posts set ; the posts are of pine, lo .x 12 

 inches. 



The outside wall of the storage room 

 consists of two chambers for sawdust 

 with an intervening one of air. Of the 

 different features that go to make up 

 this wall, the outside section (C), con- 

 sists of heavy paper sheathing against 

 the studs, and then siding on the exte- 

 rior. The inside sections or partitions 

 consist of ceiling stuff against studding. 

 The outside space filled with sawdust is 

 ten inches wide, the inner one eight 

 inches. The central air space is six 

 inches in the clear. The width of the 

 inner sawdust jacket is increased three 

 inches from the floor of the ice chamber 

 upwards. II, are the joists of the ice 

 floor. HH, the small gutters which 



SAWDUST 



empty into the trough G attached to the 

 centre beam. J is the ventilator, K 

 the winter door for taking in ice. The 

 floor of this chamber is a patented one, 

 Mr. H. C. Cain, of Cleveland, being the 

 patentee. The floor of the room below 

 is cement, made of lake gravel and 

 Portland cement. Shelves for fruit are 

 shown in the cross section. 



The ice chamber is of the same area 

 as the storage room and eight feet deep, 

 having a capacity of 500 tons. At the 

 time of refilling last winter there was 

 about 100 tons of old ice remaining 

 over. The cost of filling is seven 

 cents when ice is eleven inches thick, 

 when three or four inches thick it costs 

 twenty cents per ton. The ice is cut 

 and run in the same as in filling a large 

 ice house. 



The temperature of the cold room is 

 35° when fifty or sixty tons of grapes 

 are in store, and a little higher when 

 the fruit is first put in, but does not 

 vary more than four degrees the year 

 round. The fruit to keep well must be 

 fair and sound ; this is insisted upon, 

 or else there will be much loss. Espe- 

 cially is this true with grapes. 



I am informed by Mr. Hunt that the 

 storage of grapes is very suc- 

 cessful and when taken out 

 during cold weather they keep 

 well. Catawbas have been 

 tested most and retain their 

 flavor until midsummer. Con- 

 cords do not retain their flavor 

 so well. Apples have their 

 season prolonged about two 

 months, and keep well after 

 being taken from the storage 

 room. It is the same with 

 pears, with this exception, 

 Bartletts when kept over a 

 month spoil very quickly 

 on being taken into the open 



FiG. 1271. 



27 



