The Storage and Preservation of Fruit. 187 



it -was picked, until it becomes as cool as the room. The 

 cool temperature will check the passing off of moisture 

 from the fruit, and the dry air of the room will absorb the 

 moisture as it is given off. Dryness of the air in this room 

 may be promoted, if need be, b\' exposing baskets of un- 

 slacked lime. When the fruit has become as cool as the 

 room, it may be packed in dry packages, and the packed 

 fruit may remain in the room until it is desired to remove 

 it. If to be kept some time, it would better be removed to 

 a second room in which the air is less dry than in the first 

 apartment. 



291. Fruit may become moist when removed from stor- 

 age. When a loose package of cold fruit is brought from 

 the storage room into a warmer atmosphere, moisture will 

 be condensed upon the fruit and the package whenever the 

 temperature of the latter is lower than the dew point of 

 the atmosphere. The fruit thus becomes damp and warm 

 at the same time, which tends to rapid decay. If the pack- 

 age is tight, however, this will not occur, because the air 

 between the fruits in the package, as it becomes warm, 

 will tend to absorb moisture from the fruit, while the 

 moisture from the external air will be condensed on the 

 outside of the package. 



To prevent fruit from becoming damp when removed 

 from cold storage, therefore, it is only necessary to wrap 

 the package in impervious cloth until the package and its 

 contents become as warm as the external air. This pre- 

 caution is, however, seldom taken. 



292. The kind of storage used by the fruit grower will 

 of course depend much upon circumstances. As a rule, 

 only those fruit growers who are located near a city of suf- 

 ficient size to support a commercial cold-storage house will 



