Thinning, Gathering, Keeping, and Marketing. 117 



It will be observed that the case, consisting almost entirely of 

 drawers, is light. The arrangement of strips around the drawers, 

 securely fastened at the corners, makes the case strong. Berries can 

 be put into these drawers in bulk, or any of the boxes in use can be 

 placed in them. They are cheap a good carpenter can make four 

 in a day, complete ; the whole cost, made in the best manner, will 

 not exceed $1.50 or $2.00 for a case holding two and a half or three 

 bushels. 



Keeping Fruit. The essential requisites for the successful keep- 

 ing of fruit are I. A proper degree of maturity; 2. Careful hand- 

 picking to avoid all bruises ; 3. Assorting the ripe from the unripe ; 

 4. An apartment with a low temperature and free from superabund- 

 ant moisture ; and 5. A pure air, free from unpleasant odors. 



The modes for securing the first three requisites have been 

 already pointed out. An apartment perfectly adapted to the keeping 

 of fruit, having a dry air and low temperature, is of the utmost im- 

 portance. A warm and moist air will rot the best fruit in a few 

 weeks ; while a cool and dry one will preserve it for several months. 

 A warm and dry air will produce shrivelling, especially in pears. One 

 of the most perfect contrivances for keeping fruit is Nyce's Fruit- 

 House, where the temperature is maintained at thirty-four degrees 

 throughout the year, by means of ice placed on an iron floor above, 

 and with the protection of non-conducting walls at the sides. Dry- 

 ness is secured by sprinkling the floor with chloride of calcium. In 

 this room perishable fruits, which commonly last only a day or two, 

 are preserved sound for weeks together, and autumn pears and 

 grapes remain sound through the winter.* 



* These houses are constructed on the following theory : In the gradual ripening of fruit, 

 hydrogen and carbon are constantly given off ; the former uniting with the oxygen of the 

 air, and forming water the latter, carbonic acid. This process, in any confined vessel filled 

 with fruit, consumes all the oxygen, especially if the fruit be ripe and the air warm, in about 

 forty-eight hours. The rooms of this house are gas-tight, and when filled with fruit, if 

 closed up for two days, a candle goes out in them almost instantly. The fruit is then sur- 

 rounded by an atmosphere composed of the nitrogen of the air and carbonic acid. Hydro- 

 gen and carbon then cease to be evolved from the fruit, and decomposition also, in a great 

 degree, from necessity, ceases. Decay is much retarded by the absence of moisture, which 

 is removed by sprinkling the floor with dry chloride of calcium. More recently the waste 

 "bittern " from salt works, is found to answer equally well and is rfearly costless. It has 

 been discovered that a hundred bushels of apples throw off half a gallon of water weekly, 

 which, by the drying powder, is thus withdrawn from the air of the room, this powder being 

 repeatedly dried, as it becomes wet, and used many times. The floor above is of galvanized 

 iron, perfectly water-tight, on which ice. is placed, every winter, five or six feet deep. This, 

 by cooling the floor to freezing, keeps the air in the room below at a temperature of thirty- 

 four degrees (or only two degrees above freezing), throughout the whole summer. The walla 

 of the building are double, of iron, three feet apart, and filled with chaff, saw dust, or shav- 



