FRUIT. 



194 



FRUIT. 



double ; also the outer walls of the room 

 should be hollow ; for, with a double roof 

 and hollow walls, the liability to injury 

 from frost will be considerably diminished. 



Ventilation. Though the fruit-room 

 should for the most part be kept dark, it is 

 desirable that there should be one or two 

 small windows in it, and some good 

 and simple method of ventilation, so that 

 on dry days, and whenever necessary, the 

 atmosphere may be completely changed. 

 This is most important ; for though it is 

 not desirable to admit air unless needed, 

 ventilation must never be neglected when 

 the exhalations from the fruit have in any 

 degree tainted the air of the room. When- 

 ever there is a strong smell in the fruit- 

 room, we may be quite sure that something 

 is wrong. 



Fittings. Let us suppose, then, a fruit- 

 room so situated as described, with a north 

 aspect, properly roofed and ventilated, and 

 of convenient dimensions for the size of 

 the garden. We will say that in shape it 

 is a parallelogram, with its door or entrance 

 in one of the shorter sides. A very im- 

 portant question now occurs. How can 

 such a place be best and most conveniently 

 fitted up ? The centre should be occupied 

 by a dresser running lengthways to the ex- 

 treme end of the room. This will be useful 

 for resting or landing the baskets of fruit, as 

 soon as they are brought in from the orchard 

 or garden. The underneath part of the 

 dresser should be fitted up with drawers on 

 one or both sides, according to the width 

 of it ; and the top provided with a deep 

 ledge, about 2 inches deep on all sides, 

 to prevent any fruit that may be laid upon 

 it from falling off. The depth of the 

 drawers may vaiy according to circum- 

 stances some may be deep, for stdring 

 very dry fruit, one upon another ; others 

 shallow, for fruit in single layers. The 

 ides of the room also may be fitted up in 

 the same manner, with dressers all round 



and drawers underneath. Over these 

 dressers the side-walls may be filled with 

 shelves of any convenient width, about 9 

 inches or a foot apart from each other, ac- 

 cording to the width of the shelves. These 

 shelves must, in the same way as the 

 dresser, be fitted with a ledge I or 2 inches 

 deep, to prevent the fruit rolling off; and 

 in severe frosty weather the apples and 

 pears on the shelves can be covered with 

 fern-leaves. 



Fruit, Modes of Storing. 



The following statement appears to em- 

 brace the best methods, and those that are 

 most generally adopted, for the storing and 

 preservation of fruit : 



1. Apples and pears may be sweated 

 /.*., laid in heaps and left to heat, and then 

 stored away in an apple-room on dressers, 

 or in a dry dark vault in heaps, uncovered 

 except during frost. 



This plan, though very generally adopted 

 where apples are kept in large quantities 

 for sale, is always open to the objection of 

 being more or less injurious to the quality 

 and flavour of the fruit. 



2. Fruit may be stored on open shelves 

 and on the floor of a fruit-room, spread 

 out upon straw, and covered, when neces- 

 sary, with the same material. 



3. In the same way, but upon dried fern- 

 leaves, and with fern-leaves for a covering. 



It is by no means a good plan to store 

 apples and pears upon straw, nor even to 

 cover them with it ; for straw always im- 

 parts an unpleasant flavour to the fruit. 

 Fern-leaves, when properly dried, form an 

 excellent bed for fruit to lie upon, and are 

 not liable to the same objection. As a 

 protection against frost, fern-leaves are de- 

 cidedly a good covering. 



4. In baskets or hampers, lined with 

 straw or fern-leaves, but without any ma- 

 terial between the layers of fruit. 



If the fruit be dry when placed in the 



