STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 49 



FRUIT STORAGE. 

 By John W. Clark, North Hadley, Mass. 



Some years ago in growing- berries, I found that 1 wanted 

 something wdiere I could hold them a little to cool them off and 

 I built a little house, a lean-to from my icehouse that would hold 

 — if I call it apples — about thirty bushels of apples. This I run 

 for about four or five years and I found that with berries I did 

 better to get them to market as quick as I could and not put 

 them in it. But if I wanted to ship them I could put them in 

 the house and take the heat out of them and get them cool, put 

 them in there for a few hours, and then I could ship them and 

 they would ship better. 



Well, I made up my mind that I wanted a larger house for 

 apples and I looked the matter over and figured on it, and I 

 built a house without ever seeing one before. The house works 

 W'Cll and it has proved a good investment and it is a simple, 

 cheap kind of a house. 



In order to keep pace with the changes that have taken and 

 are taking place in the handling and marketing of our different 

 fruits the orchardist must change the methods of conducting his 

 business in such a way that he can keep pace with the times and 

 secure the greatest possible returns on the capital and labor 

 invested in his business. To do this he must understand that 

 success does not depend on any one branch of his business, but 

 upon each separate branch being conducted in a careful busi- 

 ness-like way. One may have a good orchard, but if the fruit 

 is not well grown and free from imperfections or disease, or if 

 the- fruit is w^ell grown but not handled or marketed as it should 

 be, the returns to the grower will be smaller than they might 

 have been, or as it proves in many cases the balance is on the 

 wrong side of the ledger. 



The orchardist must not wait until the fruit is ready to be 

 picked before he takes any notice or care of it : he nuist begin 

 as soon as the buds start their growth in spring to see that the 

 dift'erent insects or diseases do not get a hold upon the tree or 

 fruit during its season of growth, that the fruit may go into 

 storage well grown and free from disease or imperfections. 



