PREFACE 



His method, although at first expensive, deserves to be known. His 

 fruit house is a circular building expressly for this purpose, with an outer 



Ground Plan. A, B, doors; F, windows. 



and inner wall, as will be seen on reference to the above figure. The 

 height and thickness of the walls as well as the dimensions of the house 

 are with him arbitrary. The distance between the two waUs is about three 

 feet six inches ; both have windows, as he thinks a diifused light preferable 

 to entne darkness. The inner room is of course the depository of the 

 fruit, and the object here is to attain a constant temperature of about 

 50 Fahr. ; as low as 39 would not be mjurious, but 66 to 73 destructive. 

 The intervention of fire heat, he considers very prejudicial. 



He has a number of tight wooden boxes made with drawers, of oak, 

 which wood he prefers, as being easier to be cleaned from the remains of 

 any fruit which might decay ; softer woods allow the moisture and seeds of 

 fungi, causing decay, to sink into their open pores, where they remain and 

 vegetate another season. In these drawers the fruits are placed with small 

 intervals between each, on a slight bed, one-sixth of an inch thick, of 

 sawdust, (not pine, which would communicate an unpleasant flavor,) 

 highly dried in a baker's oven, eight parts, and one part of very dry 

 pulverized charcoal, and with this mixture the interstices between the fruits 

 are filled to about two-thirds of their height, leaving one-third exposed. 

 M. Paquet discusses at some length the various substances generally used 

 to envelope fruits, such as moss, cotton, paper, &c., and finally gives the 



