THINNING, GATHERING, KEEPING, MARKETING. 137 



air in well-constructed houses on the cold-air principle has 

 been kept for five months, through winter, within three de- 

 grees of freezing. 



One of the most convenient modes for gathering, storing, 

 and keeping apples for home consumption, is in flat boxes. 

 These are filled directly 

 from the trees in the 

 orchard, and they may 



be at once conveyed to FlG . ^-Piling Fruit Boxes, 



an out-building, or piled 



up in a sheltered place in the orchard in the way shown in Fig. 

 200. This mode admits the free circulation of air, and they 

 may be protected from the weather with a board cover. As 

 winter approaches, they are conveyed to the cellar or fruit- 

 room without disturbing their contents. Or if they are to be 

 received in a cold fruit-house, the fresh fruit may be at once 

 conveyed to it. 



When packed away for winter, the boxes may be disposed 

 of as shown in Fig. 201, and when they are examined for the 



removal of decaying speci- 

 mens, the boxes are taken 

 down one at a time, and re- 

 placed in a new pile. It will 

 obviate the necessity of dis- 

 turbing or turning over the 



FIG. 201. Storing Fruit Boxes. . ., ,. . . .. , 



fruit for examination, if the 



boxes are quite shallow or only three or four inches deep, so 

 as to contain only a single layer of specimens. They should 

 have slatted bottoms, to admit the circulation of the cool air. 

 If the lumber of which they are made is sawed of the right 

 width, they are rapidly constructed by nailing together. A 

 convenient size for the boxes is twenty by twenty-four inches, 

 with slats at the bottom two inches wide and three-fourths of 

 an inch apart. They will be cheaper for the same contents if 

 six inches deep ; but the fruit is more easily picked over when 

 in a single layer with a depth of only three inches. 



If the boxes are well made they will fit closely together in 

 the piles, and, if desired, give nearly the same advantages of 

 protection from currents of air and changes of temperature as 

 when packed in barrels, while the fruit may be examined at 



