142 CROPS FOR SPECIAL FARM PRACTICES 



cellar. If it is desired to keep the fruit particularly nice, allow no 

 fruits to touch each other upon the trays, and the individual fruits may 

 be wrapped in tissue paper. For market purposes, pack tightly in barrels 

 after the apples have shrunk, and store the barrels in a very cool place. 



2. Some solid apples, as Spitzenburgh and Newtown, are not 

 injured by hard freezing, if they are allowed to remain frozen until 

 wanted and are then thawed out very gradually. 



3. Many apples, particularly russets and other firm varieties, 

 keep well when buried after the manner of pitting potatoes. Some- 

 times, however, they taste of the earth. This may be prevented by 

 setting a ridge-pole over the pile of apples in forked sticks, and 

 making a roof of boards in such a way that there will be an air 

 space over the fruit. Then cover the boards with straw and earth. 

 Apples seldom keep well after removal from a pit in spring. 



4. Apples may be kept by burying in chaff. Spread chaff — buck- 

 wheat-chaff is good — on the barn floor, pile on the apples and cover 

 them with chaff and fine broken or chopped straw 2 feet thick, exercising 

 care to fill the interstices. They may be covered in leaves or moss. 



Cabbage. 



The most satisfactory method of keeping cabbages is to bury them 

 in the field. Choose a dry place, pull the cabbages, and stand them 

 head down on the earth. Cover them with soil to the depth of 6 or 

 10 inches, covering very lightly at first to prevent heating — unless the 

 weather should quickly become severe — and as winter sets in, cover 

 with a good dressing of straw or coarse manure. The cabbages should 

 be allowed to stand where they grew until cold weather approaches. 

 The storing beds are usually made about 6 or 8 feet wide, so that the 

 middle of the bed can be reached from either side, and to prevent heat- 

 ing if the weather should remain open. Cabbages quickly decay in the 

 warm weather of spring. 



Cabbage for family use is most conveniently kept in a barrel or box 

 half buried in the garden. Cabbages and turnips should never be 

 kept in the house cellar, as when decaying they become very offensive. 



Celery. 



For market purposes, celery is stored in temporary board pits, in 

 sheds, in cellars, and in various kinds of earth pits and trenches. The 



