THINNING, GATHERING, KEEPING, MARKETING. 135 



The accompanying figure (Fig. 198) represents the plan of 

 a simple fruit-room, with shelves five feet wide in the centre, 

 three in number, one above the other, supported by six posts, 





SHELVES for Fft HIT 



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FlG. 198. Plan of Fruit Room for Home Use. 



with a passage two and a half or three feet wide all around. 

 Fig. 199 represents a larger fruit-room, with two series of 

 shelves, and a row of drawers for pears on each side. 



FJJEARDRAWER3 



SHELVES 



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EAR DRAWERS 



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FIG. 199. Plan for Larger Fruit Room. 



Fruit-houses kept cold by ice are usually too expensive in 

 construction and too costly in management for general use, 

 and they are chiefly applicable to the perishable fruit ripen- 

 ing in summer and autumn. Winter fruit may be sufficiently 

 preserved in cold storage or "cold-air" houses until the 

 ripening of early strawberries and other small fruits, after 

 which there is little demand for the supplies of the preceding 

 year. 



The cold-air houses are separate buildings above ground, 

 built in the following manner : The walls are double, with a 

 space filled with sawdust a foot thick, and they may be all 



