PACKING APPLES. 63 



keeping fruiu, che apples may be taken to it as soon as 

 they are picked. It is an excellent plan to store apples 

 on shallow shelves in cellars if one has the room and 

 does not care to barrel them for market until spring. 

 They can then be sorted at any time. Cider api)les 

 should be left on the ground in piles. They will lose 

 some of their water and will make better cider. If tliey 

 freeze a little on top they will not be damaged. 



If the house cellar will not keep apples well, or if the 

 quantity of apples to store is large, a fruit cellar should 

 be built at some other place. Mr. Horace Rainey details 

 his experience in keeping apples for market at Columbia, 

 Tennessee, in the ''Spirit of the Farm," from which I 

 extract as follows : "In the fall of 1882 I excavated a 

 space eight feet deep, eight wide, and sixty feet long ; 

 this I walled up and arched over with a nine-inch wall 

 of brick. Over the arch I put a coat of cement, and 

 over this I placed all the earth from the excavation, and 

 at intervals in the arch of four feet I built small 

 brick chimneys, or ventilators, which came out above 

 the ground. I also made ventilators in each end. The 

 door I placed in tlie .north end. The floor I also laid of 

 brick. The cellar being completed, the next question is 

 to properly store the apples in it so as to economize in 

 space. 



" I had made several hundred slat-boxes or crates, each 

 to hoid one bushel. These I carried to the orchard and 

 left as many as necessary under each tree. Each picker 

 is provided witii a small basket and a ladder, and is re- 

 quired to leave off his shoes or to wear rubbers ; to handle 

 the apples carefully, and to place them carefully, one at 



