Fitting tip a Fruit Room. 153 



FITTING UP A FRUIT ROOM. 



There has been a good deal said lately about building fruit rooms ; 

 but the question what to put the fruit in, has received comparatively 

 little attention. We have been asked, How and of what material to 

 make shelves.^ But our answer has been, Do not have any shelves ; that 

 is, to place your late fruit directly upon them for keeping. They are 

 very convenient for varieties of which there are but a few specimens of 

 a kind ; 1nit the fruit is pretty sure to wilt when kept long on them, and 

 after that it can never ripen perfectl}-. The English still recommend 

 placing the fruit singly on shelves, and the practice was formerly 

 adopted here, but found not to be adapted to our climate, where the 

 atmosphere is so much dryer than that of England. We have found it 

 a good way, when we had several lots of a half dozen to a dozen 

 specimens each, of new kinds, to put each kind in a paper bag, and 

 place them all in a box together. Drawers are very convenient, but 

 costly, and if fitted as tightly as common, the moisture of the fruit will 

 swell them so much that the carpenter will have to be called in to 

 " ease " them. Bins are sometimes used where the quantity is large ; 

 but they are inconvenient to clean out, and the fruit cannot be removed 

 without hardling it all over. For apples, there Is nothing better than 

 clean barrels; but the more delicate j^ears are apt to be bruised when 

 packed in so large quantity. Broad, shallow boxes seem to be, on 

 the whole, the most eligible. The size used in Boston market Is 

 eighteen inches square by seven deep (Inside), made of inch boards, 

 planed. These may be filled and piled one on top of another very 

 conveniently. Second-hand boxes may be obtained very cheaplv at 

 grocery stores, and answer a very good purpose ; but such as have 

 acquired any bad odor should be rejected. 



Some cheap shelves may be built to place the boxes on, when, if 

 covered up, they will answer the purpose of drawers, at much less 

 expense ; or a rack with two stout bars to rest the boxes on would be 

 still cheaper. A broad shelf of the height of a table will be found 

 convenient for spreading out summer pears, and also as a work-bench 



