THE IDEAL STORAGE TLANT 



249 



lively high percentage of moisture. Just what the best moisture 

 content is has not yet been accurately determined. ]\Ir. ]\Iadison 

 Cooper, a recognized expert in such matters, suggests for apples 

 80 per cent of a saturated atmosphere. One thing is certain, 

 it is very easy to get the storage room too dry. While it is 

 undoubtedly possible to also get it too moist, this is a far less 

 common difficulty. The writer recalls the methods used by 

 two growers in the Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia, who were 

 noted for their success in keeping apples. One of them had 

 a stream of water running through his storage cellar and the 

 other made a practice of wetting down his cellar with a hose. 

 It is apparently particularly objectionable, from the moisture 

 standpoint, to have a cement floor in the building unless some 

 provision is made to svpply the needed amounts of moisture. 



Fig. 120. — A good type of farm storage house. This building will hold about two thousand 

 barrels of apples and has ample room for empty barrels in the loft. 



In one house the requisite moisture supply lia.s been kept up in 

 a room which has a cement floor, by having a small channel 

 cut in the cement along two sides of the room and keeping a 

 small stream of water in this from a faucet which is allowed 

 to drip slightly. 



6. Good Size. — The storage ought to be ample. The cost 

 per barrel is less on a large plant than on a small one and it 

 therefore adds relativelj^ little cost to increase the capacity 

 of the house considerably. And where new orchards are coming 

 along, more and more room is going to be needed. It is there- 



