2c3 THE FRUIT GROWER'S GUIDE. 



outside the building to regulate the heat as desired. Particular care must be taken 

 in making the joints and in fixing the pipes, so as to preclude the necessity for 

 subsequent repairs. The openings inside (12 inches by 4^ inches) should have 

 ornamental or brass gratings. 



The floor of the room may be of boards, best Baltic, 4J inches by 1 J inch, tongued 

 and grooved, properly seasoned and dry, laid on joists on dwarf pigeon-hole walls, 

 but there is always a taint of turpentine arising when this flooring is used. A 

 concrete bottom surfaced with cement is preferable, and not liable, as wood is, to 

 harbour insects or foster fungi : but ornamental (Minton) tiles are the most appro- 

 priate ; and remember that the floor level must be above the damp-course, or two 

 easy steps above the ground level. 



Internally the fruit room should be fitted with shelves all around, leaving the 

 central part clear. Immediately under the window, or windows, fix a wood slab, the 

 breadth of the window and the width of the shelves, with drawers underneath for 

 storing labels and other appurtenances. These tables, in the immediate light of the 

 window, admit of a closer inspection of fruit than by the light generally of the room. 

 The width of the shelves should be 3 feet, just as far as one can reach across comfort- 

 ably, and the distance between them not less than 18 inches. Uprights should be 3 inches 

 square ; bearers, 3 inches by 1| inch, narrow face upwards, and 3 to 4 feet apart, 

 morticed and tenoned into the uprights ; the shelves to be formed of laths not less 

 than 2 or more than 3 inches wide, and 1 J inch thick, placed so as to leave a space 

 of J to f inch between them; the edges to the shelves being formed of f-inch 

 board, 3 inches deep, let into the uprights flush with their outer face, and the lower 

 edge level with the top of the laths. 



The paths should be 3 feet or, better, 4 feet wide. In the centre of the room a table, 

 with a top 4 feet wide, is a great convenience. Immediately under the top provide two 

 tiers of drawers, 4| inches deep each, on both sides, set back 3 or 4 inches from the edge, 

 and beneath these form a closet, with doors, for jars for very late keeping fruit The whole 

 of the wood, every face, should be dressed, and all the edges rounded. Sycamore is good 

 for shelves, being fine-grained, and remarkably white and clear. Poplar looks well for 

 a time, but soon becomes darkened by fungi. Oak and elm are durable, but fungus 

 soon coats them over, and the tannin of oak is not desirable, lied pine and fir have a 

 bad character for tainting fruit with turpentine or resin, but from white deal we have 

 not found any taint in the fruit during nearly half a century's experience. This we can 



