WHAT THE FKLIT-IIOUSKS HAVE DONE IN THE AVEST. 



At Cleveland, Ohio, where a house has been in full operation some 

 years, this last winter large quantities of grapes, amounting to several 

 tons, have been perfectly preserved, and hundreds of pounds yet remain 

 unsold. The policy of the owners of the house being to put them upon 

 the market in a manner to realize the largest profit. These grapes 

 were purchased at two hundred dollars per ton, and now sell readily for 

 from six to seven hundred dollars per ton. 



Dr. Geo. B. Loring and lion. Edmund Burke, who were on a com- 

 mittee to visit this house at Cleveland, and whose report is published 

 herein, brought back to Boston with them ten or twelve pounds of these 

 grapes, which, on their arrival here and for two weeks after taking from 

 the fruit-house, were in the most perfect condition. These grapes "were 

 exhibited to dealers and fruit raisers in Boston and vicinity, who pro- 

 nounced them perfect in condition and flavor. 



CONSTRUCTION OF THE HOUSE. 



These houses are divided into several rooms, or compartments, and 

 being air tight and impervious to heat or cold, the moisture of the at- 

 mosphere is absorbed by chemical process. The oxygen, which is the 

 decomposing element of the atmosphere, is destroyed, and the fruit sur- 

 rounded by carbonic acid, kept at the even temperature of thirty-four 

 degrees. 



We call especial attention to the reports of the Committees who vis- 

 ited Buffalo, Cleveland, Covington and Newport, Kentucky, and Pitts- 

 burg, Pennsylvania, for the purpose of examining the fruit houses es- 

 tablished in these cities. 



EXTRACTS FROM REPORT OF COL. DANIEL NEEDHAJI, SECRETARY 

 OF THE NEW ENGLAND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETV. 



'* The Messrs. Caldwell Brothers of Newport, Kentucky, own three 

 houses, one at Newport, and another at Covington, Kentucky, and one 

 at Detroit, Michigan. The house at Newport has been in operation two 

 years. It is now filled with apples. This house was built at a cost of 

 about eleven thousand dollars, and last year yielded a profit of seven- 

 teen thousand dollars on its apples alone. The apples in the West are 

 as difficult to preserve as any other fruit, and the house which will keep 

 apples well will keep any variety of fruit. The cost of the ice for 

 cooling the temperature of the rooms, and the chemicals for absorbing 



