442 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



down, and spread the contamination to the entire 

 sample. The fruit should be cooled down somewhat 

 before it is placed in cold storage, especially if there 

 is much of it, otherwise it raises the temperature 

 of the compartment. 



The requisite features in a domestic iced storage 

 house are set forth as follows by Hexamer : * " To 

 preserve fruit or retard its ripening, it has to be 

 stored in pure, dry, cold air. These conditions can 

 be produced in various ways. But the simplest and 

 least expensive method for farm use is to build a 

 two -story ice house, the ground floor of which is for 

 the storage of fruit and the upper for ice. The most 

 important part of such a house is the proper con- 

 struction of the dividing floor upon which the ice 

 rests. The timbers, the size of which depends on the 

 quantity of ice to be supported by them, are so ar- 

 ranged as to have narrow openings between one 

 another to permit the cold air from the ice cham- 

 ber proper to descend to the storage room below, 

 and also to facilitate the dripping of the water from 

 the melting ice. 



r 'To prevent the water from falling on the fruit, 

 an additional floor or roof has to be constructed 

 under the dividing floor. The best material for this 

 purpose is galvanized, corrugated sheet iron, arranged 

 so that all the water which falls upon it flows into a 

 gutter connected with a leader, through which it is 

 carried into the main drain. Dryness in the storage 



*Dr. F. M. Hexamer, "Cold Storage Fruit House," Auier. Agric., Jan. 3D. 

 1897, 135. 



