218 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTDUAL SOCIETY. 



The after conditions of success may be briell^' stated as follows : 

 The perfect control of temperature, light, and moisture ; all experi- 

 ence shows that, without such control, success cannot be attained. 

 Storage apartments must be dark, dry. uniformly and moderately 

 cool, and constructed so as to exclude at pleasure the variable 

 external atmosphere. Apples may be kept at a lower temperature 

 than pears — sa}- thirty-four to forty degrees. 



After many years of experience, both with and without ice, I 

 have adopted a house built in a cool, shady aspect, with the 

 door on the north ; and with a thoroughly drained and cemented 

 cellar, having small double windows which may be opened or 

 closed at pleasure. In this way I am enabled to keep my late fall 

 and winter pears until February or March in good condition. 

 Mr. John J. Thomas writes me that in a fruit room of this kind, 

 by admitting air on cold nights, and closing the entrances when 

 the air is warm, he has had sound Lawrence pears in March, and 

 Josephine of Malines in April, and Baldwin apples in Jinie. 



My late fall and winter fruits, intended for long keeping, are 

 allowed to remain on the trees until frost is apprehended. They 

 are then gathered with great care into bushel boxes, and placed 

 in tiers of boxes six or seven feet high, and covered with boards, 

 on the north side of my fruit house, where they are kept until the 

 ground begins to freeze. They are then removed to the cellar, and 

 there piled up in the same manner, with thin strips of boards or 

 shingles between the boxes, until wanted for use ; when the boxes 

 are looked over and the most mature are from time to time taken 

 out. In this way I keep pears until March or April in perfect 

 condition. 



In regard to the use of ice, I would sa}' that where fruits are 

 kept for some months under its iniluence at a very low temperature, 

 they seem to lose much of their Uavor ; the cellular tissue also 

 seems to have become dry and to have lost its vitality, or powci- 

 to resume the ripening process. Experience proves that, for the 

 common varieties of the pear, about forty degrees of Fahrenheit is 

 the temperature best suited to hold this process in equilibrimn. 

 The proper maturing of fruit thus preserved demands skill and 

 science. Different varieties require different degrees of moisture 

 and heat, according to the firmness of the skin and tlie texture of 

 the llesh. Thus some varieties of the pear will ripen at a low tem- 

 perature and in a comparatively dry atmosphere, while others arc 



