136 THINNING, GATHERING, KEEPING, MARKETING. 



wood, or brick and stone, or have a triple-brick wall, the mid 

 die one with the brick on edge, and all bound together. The 

 lower and upper floors are double, with the spaces filled with 

 sawdt.ist. The stone underpinning gives two feet air-space 

 oeneath the lower floor. The fruit-room is cooled by admit- 

 ting the air from the outside through openings in the under- 

 pinning and through the lower floor, the warm air above 

 passing out by a ventilator through the attic, which is sur- 

 mounted with a cap which will insure an upward current oi 

 air when there is any wind or breeze. A single double- 

 window affords sufficient light, and the fruit-room is entered 

 through double doors set in an entry. As soon as the fruit- 

 room is filled in autumn, it is cooled by the admission of 

 cold night-air, and is kept within two or three degrees of 

 freezing. To effect this cooling, the plank registers are 

 opened in the ventilator above and in the lower floor, and air 

 is admitted through the openings in the underpinning from 

 without. When the thermometer shows the temperature of 

 the room to be near freezing, the openings in the underpin- 

 ning are shut with close-fitting wooden blocks, and the plank 

 registers in the lower floor and in the ventilator are closed. 

 By replenishing the cold air from without when required, the 

 temperature is kept within two or three degrees of freezing 

 through winter and spring as long as cool nights continue. 



Large, two-story houses may be built for holding several 

 thousand bushels, the second floor being made of slats to 

 admit the air from below. The low temperature is more 

 completely preserved by closing and packing the windows and 

 doors as soon as the house is filled with fruit, and entering at 

 the top, by means of outside stairs and a passage through the 

 attic. These stairs are enclosed from the weather. A ther- 

 mometer set in a niche in the lower end of a sliding-rod pass- 

 ing through the upper floor, enables the attendant to ascertain 

 the temperature without entering and disturbing the air in the 

 fruit-room below. 



The air of the room may be partly cooled during the warm 

 weather of summer by opening the ventilator and registers 

 and admitting the earth-cooled air from the space beneath the 

 lower floor. If large quantities of fruit are to be stored, the 

 floors must be well strengthened with posts and piers. The 



