STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. QC) 



the middle of February ? If so, in wliat condition do the}- come 

 out? 



Mr. Prince. I would say that formerly, as I stated in my }iaper, 

 I kept my apples upon shelves, but I found that they were liable to 

 wither in that way. The cellar I have now for a fruit cellar is used 

 for that purpose only. It has a cemented floor and the walls are 

 of split stone laid in cement. I put the apples in bulk, sometimes 

 with boards at the bottom and sometimes directh' upon the cement 

 floor. I think I have had full as good success laying them upon the 

 floor, piling them, I don't care how deep, three or four feet. They 

 keep better than in barrels or upon shelves, or any other way that I 

 have tried. I am careful to have no leaves with them, for a leaf is 

 as bad as a rotten apple. I never disturb them until I want to mar- 

 ket them, even if there are rotten apples. In 1879 I was away ; I 

 had four hundred bushels of Baldwins all in one pile, which was from 

 three to five feet in height, coming up to the cellar windows. The}- 

 laid there until the 10th of March. When I sold them and packed 

 them there were less than two bushels decayed. As I said, I would 

 never keep them in a dry cellar. The cellar of the house I live in 

 is dr}', being warmed Ity a furnace, and I find apples don't keep at 

 all in it. I would have a cellar damp, but not wet, not wet enough 

 so the moisture would stand upon the apples ; but moist, and I don't 

 care how cool if it does not freeze. If apples are frozen a little, 

 some think, it don't hurt them, — I don't think the}- are as good 

 as before, although they may look as well. 



Mr. Gardiner. The late Nathan Foster, of Gardiner, was re- 

 markably successful in raising and caring for apples. He often 

 said that he made it a point that his children should have an apple 

 to eat every day in the year. He would keep them until the new 

 crop came in. Once on a cold day in December, the thermometer 

 being below zero, I went to his cellar and found his cellar windows 

 open. He said he wanted to keep the temperature below 32° the 

 whole time, and that the apples would not freeze until it went Itelow 

 28°. 



Mr. Atiiertox. I would ask Mr. Prince how. if his cellar is too 

 dry, be obtains the requisite dampness or moisture? And before I 

 sit down I want to say a word with regard to temperature. I have 

 recently learned something that I didn't know before, and that is 

 that you can run the temperature down to twenty-eight or thirty 

 degrees with safety ; my opinion having previously been that it was 



