174 BACTERIA, YEASTS, AND MOLDS 



4. Temperature of a Cool Cellar. It sometimes hap- 

 pens that the only place for storing the autumn products 

 is a cool cellar. This is frequently the case on the farm, 

 especially when considerable material is to be preserved. 

 A cool cellar is of use in any home, for it makes possible 

 the purchasing of fruits and vegetables in bulk during the 

 fall, when they are cheap, and their preservation for use 

 till a later season when they are more expensive. 



The value of a cool cellar rests upon two facts : (i) The 

 temperature is usually lower than in other parts of the 

 house. (2) It is more likely to be uniform. A cellar under- 

 neath a house will have during the winter season, at least 

 in cool climates, a temperature not much above freezing. 

 For reasons which we have already considered, such a 

 temperature will preserve fruits and vegetables from bac- 

 terial action or other types of decay. Where such a cellar 

 is at hand it is, therefore, very well adapted to the preser- 

 vation of fruits. Any other room, if its temperature could 

 be controlled, would be just as good, and if it were light 

 would be somewhat better than a cellar, which is usually 

 dark. But rooms above ground are generally lighted by 

 windows, which make it difficult to control the tempera- 

 ture. In the winter such rooms are pretty sure to have 

 a temperature below freezing in the cold climates, and 

 this is sufficient to ruin fruits, most of which are spoiled 

 by freezing. 



Since the value of the cellar in preserving fruits and 

 vegetables is simply in its uniform and low temperature, 

 the lower the temperature — provided it is above freez- 

 ing — and the more even it is, the more satisfactory are 

 the results. On the other hand, a warm cellar, so char- 



