56 MAKING HORTICULTURE PAY 



KEEPING APPLES IN FARM CELLARS 



" I believe we will never find a more satisfactory 

 package in which to store apples in the cellar than 

 the barrel," writes William G. Clifford of Illinois. 

 " It is tight enough to keep out the air, and the 

 apples are thus kept from drying out and wilting. 

 The barrel is of such shape that one barrel cannot 

 be pushed up tight against another and circulation 

 of air thus prevented. For while we do not want 

 circulation of air among the apples in the barrel, 

 we do not want it in the cellar and among the 

 apple packages. 



" If the apples get too warm, as they sometimes 

 will when the weather is warm in the fall and early 

 winter, the windows can be opened and the cold 

 night air made to circulate among the barrels. 

 When boxes are used they are often packed so 

 closely that the air does not get in to cool the fruit. 



" To keep apples well I find it necessary to keep 

 the temperature down as much as possible during 

 the fall and early winter. In midwinter this will 

 about look out for itself, in this latitude. The man 

 who has only one cellar under his house will have 

 hard work keeping his apples if he has a furnace 

 or any kind of a stove in it, as many farmers have. 

 I have for many years had two cellars, in only one 

 of which any provision for heat is made. 



" There is a door between the cellars, and to in- 

 sure that the door is always kept shut, I have a 

 rope that runs over a block and has a heavy weight 

 at the end. The weight shuts the door as soon as 

 one lets go of it. The windows are small, and late 

 in the fall I put on the second set. Several of these 

 are arranged to open, and these are kept open a 

 great deal on cold days and nights in the fall, to let 



