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vation, rought handling, or attacks by insect pests and blights, fail 
to keep well although the variety itself is known to possess good 
keeping qualities. To risks and losses due to the causes just en- 
umerated must be added cost of handling, re-sorting, and re-pack- 
ing, also, rent of cold storage room, which all tend to greatly 
reduce the profits to the grower or the dealer. 
The conditions required for preserving fruit in cold storage are 
pure, dry, cold air, and the following table, issued by the Kansas 
Experimental Station, shows the temperatures which, for certain 
produets, give the best results :— 
Product. Temp. F. Package. Keeping period. 
Apples, winter .. .. 382-35 .. boxes .. 5 to 8 months 
Pears a a8 .. 83-38 .. 53 -- 2to4 , 
Quinees... ie .. 33-35. 3 38to4 ,, 
Peaches or Plums .. 36-40 .. crates 2to4 , 
Grapes 2 Pe .. 88-40 .. boxes 2to8 ,, 
Berries, Cherries Sua 40 .. punnets lto3 , 
Lemons and Oranges .. 40 .. boxes 8 to 12 ,, 
Water Melons... 5% 40 3 to6 ,, 
Musk Melons a8 Ba 400 as au 2to3 , 
Tomatoes eer .. 88-40 .. crates 2to4 ,, 
Cucumbers 2a .. 388-40 oe lto3 ,, 
Celery = or ba 35 
Onions bs 6 .. 384-40 
Potatoes .. .. 36-40 
Asparagus or Cabbage .. 84-35 
For juicy summer fruit the value of cold storage is not so much 
for keeping them for any length of time as for tiding them over a 
glutted market. Such fruit as strawberries and raspberries should 
not be kept over a day or two. Grapes on the whole do not retain 
their flavour, bloom, or appearance if kept longer than a week or 
two; a few stand cold storage well. Of pears, some will keep well; 
others, such as the Bartlett, may be put in early in the autumn, 
and stowed away in such a manner as will allow the cold air to circu- 
late freely around them, and should be sold as soon as the market is 
relieved. There is then a good demand for them. Late peaches, 
firm and sweet, may be stored with profit. Apples, of all fruit, 
keep best, and moreover, improve by keeping in cold storage, but 
with whatever fruit is stored, success will depend on the kind, con- 
dition when gathered, care in handling, packing, method of storing, 
as well as the temperature at which it is kept. 
Two other conditions influence the keeping quality of fruit to a 
larger extent than most people imagine. One is the quality and 
amount of fertilising nutriment the tree draws from the earth dur- 
ing the period of its growth, and the other its freedom from attacks 
of parasites, the sort of blight affecting it, and its state of health 
generally. 
