3IO 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



lowing from the United States Year Book 

 for 1900: "Most storage establishments 

 store apples in carload lots at about forty 

 cents per barrel for the season ending May 

 1st, and it is rarely the case that sound fruit 

 does not advance more than that in, price by 

 March ist, while a rise of $1 or even $1.50 

 per barrel is not infrequent." 



CoivD Storage Considered Mechani- 

 cally. As to the question of securing cold 

 storage accommodation, there is, first of all, 

 the cellar, available to all. For late fall and 

 winter storage a well-ventilated cellar will 

 serve the purpose of the family in preserv- 

 ing apples and late pears. In this state- 

 ment there is, of course, nothing new; but 

 it is necessary to repeat at this juncture that 

 there are three reasons for the spoiling of 

 fruit in cellars : First, the fruit, all or part 

 of it, may be of poor quality when stored. 

 Then the handling, packing, or manner of 

 storing the fruit may be careless. Finally, 

 the storage room may be badly ventilated 

 and uneven in temperature. The cellar 

 should be well ventilated, with the window 

 or windows open as much as possible, so 

 long as the temperature does not drop below 

 freezing. If the windows are left open, 

 the temperature of the cellar will require 

 careful watching, and a thermometer sus- 

 pended about the middle of the room is ad- 

 visable. A proper average temperature for 

 a mixture of fruit and vegetables is 36 de- 

 grees F., and the temperature of the cellar 

 should be kept at that point as steadily as 

 possible. Of course, with early fruits that 

 are stored during the warm weather of Sep- 

 tember and October this temperature cannot 

 Tdc reached, nor yet in the spring with late- 

 keeping fruits. The cellar, however, even 

 at these times, will likely be cooler and 

 steadier in temperature than any place above 

 ground, not artificially cooled ; and there- 

 fore, it is better to make the most of it. 

 Fruit that is intended for long keeping 

 should be packed and stored immediately 



after picking, and not left in heaps in the or- 

 chard or the shed. 



A small ice-storage is another means for 

 preserving fruit. This is superior to the 

 cellar in warm weather, and, therefore, gen-* 

 erally more suitable for this purpose. For 

 private purposes, an ice-storage may be built 

 for $250 and upward, according to the size 

 and style of insulation. It includes a re- 

 frigerator, or storage room, and an ice house 

 attached, where the ice is stored in the win- 

 ter and does its duty without being re- 

 handled. The refrigerator is cooled after 

 the most approved fashion by the circulation 

 of air between that chamber and the ice 

 house. 



While this kind of storage is generally 

 satisfactory if properly constructed, it has 

 limitations inseparable from refrigerators 

 cooled by ice. The principal of these limi- 

 tations is that of temperature. It is diffi- 

 cult to keep the temperature down to the 

 lowest desirable limit in summer, and in 

 winter there is danger of freezing. Espec- 

 ially is this the case while the ice is being put 

 in, and afterwards. 



The third method is the large co-opera- 

 tive storage, owned and operated by a com- 

 pany of fruit growers, situated at a railway 

 depot and in the midst of a fruit growing 

 district. This kind of storage accommoda- 

 tion has many advantages. The fruit 

 stored here can be marketed promptly and 

 without long hauls. A large company can 

 afford to build a well-equipped plant, well 

 insulated, and well provided with the best 

 arrangements for refrigeration, and to em- 

 ploy a capable manager to look after the 

 fruit and see that the temperature and hu- 

 midity of the various rooms are of the pro- 

 per degree. While a fairly satisfactory 

 plant on a large scale can be refrigerated by 

 the use of ice, the large plants of the future 

 will be cooled by machinery. There is an 

 account of such a plant in the April number 

 of the Canadian Horticulturist for 1902. 



