372 APPENDIX II. 



wire. It is upon this grating, which is covered by a slight 

 layer of very dry straw, that the grapes are spread. They 

 should often be inspected, and the berries which begin to decay 

 should be removed by the scissors. 



A storehouse on this plan presents the following inconve- 

 niences. Heat must often be introduced in order to defend it 

 from the winter's cold, and the result is an injurious change of 

 temperature. On the other side, the accumulation of moisture 

 makes it necessary that it should be aired from time to time, 

 and produces the same result in an inverse mode. Finally, if 

 the currents of air produced by this ventilation are too great, 

 the grape dries, shrivels, and loses, if not its quality, at least 

 its commercial value. We think, then, that it is better to use 

 the storehouse a description of which the reader will find at 

 page 685 of the second part of this work. It will be necessary 

 but to change the arrangement of the shelves, and also to use 

 chloride of calcium with precaution, for fear of shrivelling the 

 grapes.* 



When it is necessary to preserve only a small quantity of 

 grapes, the same storehouse will serve at once for grapes and 



* The reference here is to the " Cours Elementaire d'AboricuIture," from which 

 the present account of the Thomery sj' stem is translated. M. Du Breuil there gives a 

 very full and accurate description of a room or house for preserving fruit of all 

 kinds ; the principal features of which are the provision of means whereby the 

 fruit is kept at an equable temperature, free from all pressure produced by the 

 fruits pressing upon each other, and free from dampness. The latter point is 

 attained by keeping a vessel of chloride of calcium in the house — a substance 

 which must not be confounded with chloride of Ihne^ which would quickly destroy 

 the fruit. This caution is not unnecessary, as it is only a few years since a writer 

 in the " Horticulturist " recommended chloride of lime for the purpose ; having, no 

 doubt, used this term under the impression that it was simpler than the word cal- 

 cium. Chloride of calcium may be purchased cheaply, or it may be made by dia- 

 solving chalk or lime in hydrochloric acid. It must be evaporated to dryness, and 

 calcined at a red heat ; after it has become moist by exposure to the air in the 

 fruit room, it loses its power of absorbing moisture, and must be again dried and 

 calcined, but after undergoing this process it is as good as new. Most cellars in 

 American dwellings maintain averyequabli temperature during winter, and it 

 has occurred to us, that a small wooden press, made air tight, shelved and kept 

 dry by means of chloride of calcium, would form no bad substitute for Du Breuil'B 

 " Frulterie." We hope to try it next season. 



