154 BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



This dirt will furnish a good place for the growth of such 

 bacteria as thrive in low temperatures, and thus the ice 

 chest in time becomes unfit for use. Food will not keep 

 well under such conditions, becoming infected with bac- 

 teria as well as affected by the odors given off from 

 the decaying material. A frequent cleaning is necessary 

 to keep the ice chest sweet and thus make it possible to 

 preserve food properly. 



3. Temperature of a Cool Cellar. — It sometimes hap- 

 pens that the only place for storing the autumn products 

 is a cool cellar. This is frequently the case on the farm, 

 especially when considerable material is to be preserved. 

 A cool cellar is of use in any home, for it makes possible 

 the purchasing of fruits and vegetables in bulk during the 

 fall, when they are cheap, and their preservation for use 

 till a later season when they are more expensive. 



The value of a cool cellar rests upon two facts : (i) The 

 temperature is usually lower than in other parts of the 

 house. (2) It is more likely to be uniform. A cellar under- 

 neath a house will have during the winter season, at least 

 in cool climates, a temperature not much above freez- 

 ing. For reasons which we have already considered such a 

 temperature will preserve fruits and vegetables from bac- 

 terial action or other types of decay. Where such a cellar 

 is at hand it is, therefore, very well adapted to the preser- 

 vation of fruits. Any other room, if its temperature could 

 be controlled, would be just as good, and if it were light 

 would be somewhat better than a cellar, which is usually 

 dark. But rooms above ground are generally lighted by 

 windows, which make it difficult to control the tempera- 

 ture. In the winter such rooms are pretty sure to have 



