CHAPTER IX 



CONSERVATION AND THE HOUSEWIFE 



To get the most out of the home fruit-garden, the housewife 

 must promote the good works of the husband by generous use of 

 fruit throughout the year for the family good. Pro- 

 wife's Part" duction and conservation are being preached every- 

 where. To do his duty by his family and his country, 

 the man who owns land must produce, and the housewife, to do her 

 home and civic duty, must preserve. 



The preferred use for any fruit is to eat it as Nature 

 bv'storine^ produced it, unsullied by the arts of man. Now, for- 



tunately, greenness, maturity, and decay grade so 

 slowly and insensibly into each other that some fruits may be kept 

 months without deterioration, and, ciuite to the contrary, improve 

 by the keeping. 



The ideal method of keeping apples and pears is to put them in 

 cold-storage, bringing them out as needed. So kept, apples and pears 

 are as fresh and delectable, for the most part, the winter through as 

 when they naturally come to maturity. Few, however, have cold- 

 storage facilities and must rely on common storage. 



Common storage for winter varieties of apples and pears is simple 

 if a few requirements can be met. These are, that the fruit be kept 

 in a cool place, neither too wet nor too dry, where it cannot absorb 

 odors from vegetables or other products. The ideal temperature 

 is just above the freezing-point, but these fruits may be kept long and 

 well in cellars where the temperature occasionally goes up even to 

 45° or .50° Fahr. Windows that can be opened and closed, as occasion 

 requires, help wonderfully in controlling the temperature. The 

 moisture can be controlled by having a dirt -floor or by occasionally 

 sprinkling a cement floor. In such a cellar, fruit may be stored 

 unwrapped. More often, however, each apple or pear will better be 

 wrapped with paper to conserve moisture, which, at the same time, 

 keeps out odors and prevents the spread of decay. 



In any case, the safest procedure is to wrap choice fruit in news- 

 paper and pack in barrels, boxes, baskets, or bins. In a very dry 

 room it pays to line the boxes and liarrels with jiaper and to keep 

 them tightly covered. Pears are preferalily stored in shallow trays 

 or drawers. Late-ripening grapes, by the way, protected as described 



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