Fruit Storage 415 



Requisites for domestic storage without ice. 



The home storage establishment is commonly either a 

 cellar or a half-cellar, although, by taking particular 

 pains in the construction of air-spaces, a building entirely 

 above ground may be made to serve the purpose. A build- 

 ing wholly on the surface, however, is more likely to give 

 variable temperatures than one partially submerged. An 

 ordinary house cellar, if it has good ventilation and is not 

 too dry or too warm, may answer very well for the storage 

 of fruit; but it is ordinarily best, both for purposes of 

 storage and for health, that the fruit cellar should be a 

 separate structure, if products are to be stored in any 

 quantity. The requisites of a good storage cellar for fruit 

 are chiefly five: Protection from frost; the ability to secure 

 a uniform or unvarying temperature of 40 or below; 

 facilities for ventilation; air that is moist enough to pre- 

 vent evaporation; complete safety from rats and other 

 vermin. 



The protection from frost is secured either by sinking 

 the building below the surface of the ground, or by making 

 two to four air-spaces in the walls in that part standing 

 above ground. The ventilation should include facilities 

 for removing the warm and impure air from somewhere 

 near the top of the structure. Some kind of shaft or chim- 

 ney construction, with a valve or shutter that can be 

 opened or closed as necessary, will answer this purpose. In 

 buildings above ground, it will often be necessary to pro- 

 vide some means of taking in the cold air near the bottom 

 of the structure, especially before the cold weather of 

 winter sets in and after the warm weather of spring begins. 

 Cold air being heavier than warm air, it settles on the 

 surface of the ground in still nights, and if the floor of the 

 storage structure is 2 or 3 feet below the top of the ground, 



