33^ Preservation of Fruit after Gathering. 



ally very perishable, keep surprisingly well in a cold, dry fruit-room ; 

 and, when brought from such a fruit-room into a warmer atmosphere, 

 are not much affected by the change. 



The great difficulty about keeping winter pears sound and plump 

 which we find in this climate is, that it is almost impossible, without 

 the aid of a cold fruit-house, to carry even winter pears through the 

 hot weather in October, when the thermometer frequently shows 

 seventy-five degrees of heat, and no cellar or vault can be found suffi- 

 ciently cool and dry to keep the fruit from passing into a state of par- 

 tial decay. It requires a temperature nearly down to forty degrees to 

 keep pears for a long period of time, and in this part of the country 

 no cellar, rocky vault twenty-five feet deep, or rocky well seventy-five 

 feet deep, has ever shown a temperature lower than fifty degi'ees, or 

 thereabouts ; generally the coldest lager beer vaults (rocky caverns, 

 thirty feet deep) stand constantly at fifty and fifty-five degrees. 



Such a fruit-room as I have described, cooled with ice to an unvar}'- 

 ing temperature of forty degrees, and even lower, in a simple and in- 

 expensive manner, with a perfectly dry and pure atmospliere, without 

 the aid of any artificial absorbent or dryer, I have had in operation at 

 my fruit farm for three years with the most perfect success. This 

 house was examined by a large number of pomologists last Septem- 

 ber, during the session of the National Pomological Society, and was 

 reported upon by a committee of that society. The report will be 

 found in the published proceedings. This house was invented by a 

 practical man, who has had twenty years' experience in handling ice, 

 and can be had by any person who desires to make use of it, without 

 any of the extravagant sums which have been charged for similar 

 houses. There are some ten or twelve houses of this kind, which 

 have been in successful operation in the city of Philadelphia for 

 three years. 



The use of ice fbr the presei-vation of fruit I regard as an imperious 

 necessity ; and a simple, practically successful method of doing this, 

 without costly machinery, or constant attendance, must be regarded 

 by every fruit grower as an achievement worthy of attention. 



