FRUIT STORAGE 99 



for the accommodation of fruit, but rather for meat, 

 butter, eggs, and other merchandise; and, second, 

 that proper adjustment of temperature and ventilation 

 have seldom been secured. The latter difficulty is 

 usually due either to ignorance or carelessness, and 

 might be corrected; the former is harder to reach. In 

 some cases, where storage rooms cooled by machinery 

 have been properl}- managed, the results have been all 

 that could be desired. 



As to cost, there is great variation in practice. 

 The business of fruit storage in rented rooms is not 

 yet common enough so that the owners of storage 

 houses have been able to make a uniform rate. More- 

 over, circumstances differ greatly in different parts of 

 the country. Roughly, the expense ranges from ten 

 to twenty-five cents a barrel a month, or from twentj'- 

 five to fifty cents a barrel for the season of six months. 

 Fifty cents a barrel for six months maj- be looked on 

 as the standard rate, but a standard which is .seldom 

 maintained. Material reductions are made when quan- 

 tities of fruit are .stored, and the rate is reduced for 

 various other considerations, so that thirty to thirty- 

 five cents a barrel for the season comes nearer being 

 the rate usually paid. 



These prices are reckoned for apples in barrels. 

 Other fruit, as grapes, peaches, or strawberries, is 

 sometimes stored for periods varying from a few days 

 to several weeks. In such cases rates are fixed by 

 agreement. There is no accepted standard. 



2. Ice refrigeration. — The u.se of ice for cooling 

 fruit storage rooms is often practicable on farms, 



