30 BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Cold Storage. 



In the business of fruit growing we meet everywhere the 

 necessity for some method of preserving a crop, or part of 

 it, for a greater or less length of time, — to carry it through 

 a glut or beyond its season, in order to realize paying prices. 



Upon every fruit farm there should be a cold-storago 

 house or cellar of some sort. It may be only a deep cellar, 

 kept moist, if the crop is only to be carried over for a few 

 days ; but if to be preserved for a considerable length of 

 time, some artificial means must be employed to lower the 

 temperature. If ice is used for this purpose, air spaces 

 must be arranged betAvecn the body of ice and the walls of 

 the fruit room ; and the inner wall must be made from six 

 to ten inches thick, and filled with some non-conducting 

 material, as sawdust, shavings or spent tan bark. If above 

 ground, it must be made of two filled walls, with an air 

 space between. 



An underground fruit room has some advantages and 

 some disadvantages over that above ground, but for economy 

 of labor and cost it will probably prove more satisfactory. 



After a careful study of the subject (in which I find few 

 small fruit cellars that have proved entirely satisfactory), I 

 would recommend a modified form of the fruit house suc- 

 cessfully used by some of the Ohio grape growers. It can 

 be easily constructed in any cellar where there is a room 

 overhead for storing ice. 



Fig. 1 shows a cross section, which exptains itself. Should 

 it be found that there was need of ventilation, windows or 

 ventilators might be arranged in the double brick wall at 

 «, Fig. 7, and if there should be too much moisture con- 

 densed upon the stone wall it Avill be readily carried olT 

 in the tile at h. The floor should be concreted. 



Fig. 2 shows the ground plan. It is divided into a pack- 

 ing-room, a tempering room and the permanent storage 

 room. One end should open on a level with the road, for 

 convenience in loadinij and unloadinir. Such a fruit room 

 could be easily and cheaply constructed, and I see no reason 

 why it should not work as satisfactorily as if built above 

 ground. 



