THE GENESEE FARMEE. 



JBnrtintltitrnl l)e|inrtmeiit. 



CONDUCTED BY P. BAERY. 



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FRUIT ROOMS. 



Every year's experience adds importance to the inquiry concerning the structure of fruit 

 rooms. Tiie extensive cultivation of the pear gives it special interest at this tiq|e, for 

 pears can not be so safely kept in cold cellars as apples. But we have reason to believe 

 that large quantities of apples are annually lost by bad keeping. Cellars under dwel- 

 lings are generally damp to some degree, and warm, besides being occupied with vege- 

 tables and other articles that communicate impurities to the atmosphere, and affect the 

 flavor if not hasten the decay of fruits. 



The winter of 1850-51 was somewhat unusually mild, and people complained in all 

 directions that their fruit " never kept so badly." The past winter has been remarkably 

 cold, and we hear it said all around that "fruits keep unusually well." We know this 

 to be the case. We had brought us early in the winter, by a friend, a barrel of favorite 

 apples in a very bad condition, apparently in a half decayed state. We concluded they 

 were not worth attention, and left them headed up in a dry, cool room, where the ther- 

 mometer was seldom more than two or three degrees above the freezing point. We 

 (([lened the barrel two months afterwards, and found they had made not the least pro- 

 gress in decay — the cold completely arrested it. In the same room, we have several 

 barrels of sound apples, placed there in November; and on examination now, in March, 

 are so perfect that not half a dozen specks, indicating decay, are found in a barrel. The 

 same varieties in a warm cellar have decayed much. We have even been able to keep 

 autumn apples and pears sound till February, in consequence of the dry and excessive 

 cold winter. This affords indications that may be turned to good account, viz : that a 

 low, steady temperature, with dry atmosphere, are the chief requisites for a fi-uit room. 



In a late number of the English Gardeners' Chronicle, Mr. Robert Thompson gives the 

 following description and plans of the fruit room of a gentleman near London, who has for 

 several years exhibited pears in fine condition at a season when the same varieties an- 

 generally gone. It illustrates the leading principles to be observed in building a fruit 

 room ; but it must be remembered that, in our northern States at least, greater precau- 

 tions must be taken to prevent freezing. Thick walls with air spaces, or filled with 

 some non-conducting material, and thick floors, &c., are among the essentials in this 

 regard. The Hon. M. P. Wilder, of Boston, writes in the Horticulturist — 



My fruits are keeping admirably in the new fruit room. This room happens to have been situated 

 and constructed so much Hke Mr. Morrison's, (of which you have seen the drawings and description 

 in the Gardeners' Chronicle,) as to be almost a fac-simile of his. The walls of mine, however, are 

 filled in with charcoal and sawdust 



Tlie Beurre I)iel, Vicar of Winkfield, Excellentismna, and other autumn pears, ai'e now in as per- 

 fect condition as when gathered from the trees, and so they will remain till the warm weather of 

 s])ring approaches. I shall then try some of them in the non-conducting boxes, where I tliink they may 

 be kept till summer. I have by a simikr process, preserved some varieties till July. Mr. Mokrison 

 has no new principle. All that is necessaiy is to obtain a low temperature during the warm weather 

 of autumn, and to preserve this equilibrium. This being attained, there is no difficulty whatever. 

 When the severe weather of last month occurred, my fruits were removed from the shelves and 

 packed in boxes, witli a thin layer of clean rye straw between each tier, the tubes of the straw con- 

 taining air enough to correct mildew and damp. The boxes are now piled on one side of the room, 

 and covered with hay about three feet in depth. 



My experiment was suggested by the bad effects of moisture and warmth in my old fruit cellars, 

 under my dwelling house, and the same difficulty exists with rooms on the ground floor of buildings. 

 I therefore resorted to the other extreme — a cool and dry chamber on the north end of my barn, the 

 location of which you know, (and like Mr. Morrison's,) over the carriage room. I am now quite 



