224 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



late to be incorporated ii)to his paper, but is deemed, by the Com- 

 mittee ou Publication, of sufficient interest to be printed here. 



CoBDEN, III., April 10, 1886. 

 My Dear Mr. Wilder: — 



I have just now returned from my winter home on the Gulf 

 Coast, and find your letter awaiting me. My son tells me that he 

 dropped you a line explaining the delay. 



I am glad you are preparing a paper on the important topic of 

 " The Ripening and Preservation of Fruits." I am very willing to 

 contribute suggestions from my own experience, which has mostly 

 been confined to cold storage for exhibition purposes, and to* re- 

 frigeration during transportation. I have also been a frequent 

 visitor to cold storage houses which were carrying fruits for com- 

 mercial purposes. 



The best results I have known in cold storage on a large scale 

 have been accomplished without ice, l)ut by ice-making machinery 

 — the Pictet sjstem, or the Boj'ie system will do this — where the 

 cold is produced in the storage rooms by the circulation of refrig- 

 erated brine, at a temperature of 16° Fahrenheit, through extensive 

 systems of iron pipes placed in the tops of the cooling rooms; the 

 amount of brine circulated (and hence the amount of the cold 

 produced in a given room) being regulated b}' stopcocks. This 

 system is perfectly adapted to large or moderate sized establish- 

 ments, and the degree of cold can be adapted to the varying wants 

 of the rooms with ease and certainty. 



Next to this come the cold houses where large bodies of ice 

 are stored above the fruits, the amount of cold being determined 

 by the sliding of doors or valves. In all cases the houses should 

 be constructed with several dead air spaces in the walls and floors 

 (very chea[)ly secured by successive linings of building i)aper, sep- 

 arated by strips of wood). In smaller rooms the ice can be in- 

 troduced daily, according to the wants of the produce stored ; and 

 tiie degree of cold ciisily tletermined by tiie quantity. For this 

 purpose an ice pan, with proper drainage, can be arranged in the 

 upper part of any room sulliciently isolated from external influ- 

 ences, and the ice put in as wanted. 



The most successful refrigerator cars are ItuilL u[)<)n this plan. 

 The Titfany car, which is by far the best adapted of any for the 

 transportation of fruits, is constructed with a \' shai)ed ice pan 



