112 VARRO ON FARMING [bk. 



CHAPTER LIX 



OF STORING APPLES 



1 Of apples the kinds for keeping are the small ^ and 

 the large quince, the Scantian apple, the Scaudian, 

 the ^^ small rounds" and those which used to be 

 called ''sweet-wines," and now go by the name of 

 *' honey-apples" ; ^ all keep well, it is thought, if laid 

 on straw in a dry and cool place. And for this 

 reason those who build storehouses for their fruit 

 take care to put windows facing north, and to give 

 free access to the wind from that quarter, adding, 

 however, shutters, lest, if the wind blow persist- 

 ently, the apples lose their juice and shrivel up. 



2 And for the same reason — for greater coolness — 

 they do over the ceilings, walls, and floor with 

 marble cement. Some people even have a dining 

 table and couches made ready here. And, indeed, 

 when men are extravagant enough to do so in a 

 picture gallery, where art provides the pageant, 

 why should they not enjoy a gift of nature's pro- 

 viding, in the shape of the beauty of fruits beauti- 



^ Mala strutheay cotonea. Cf. Pliny (N. H., xi, ii), where 

 these are described. The struthea was a smaller kind of 

 cotonea. Cotonea {mala) was the Kvdojvia of the Greeks, our 

 quinces [cotogna in modern Italian). 



^ Melimela. According to the Geoponica (x, 76) these were 

 produced by grafting apple on quince. 



