October, 190 5 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



131 



196. Careless handling shortens the life of fruit. 

 The bruised fruit on the left will soon be as rotten 

 as the one next to it. The apple on the right has 

 been handled carefully and will Keep well 



their fruit before storing; others find it best 

 to store the fruit in bulk, and still others 

 prefer shallow boxes. There is no best 

 method. Barrel or bulk storage is, how- 

 ever, better adapted for the commercial 

 grower than box or crate storage. Much also 

 depends upon the temperature and moisture 

 of the cellar. In a dry cellar fruit will usually 

 keep better if it is open than if it is barreled. 

 Personally, I believe that storage in bushel 

 boxes or crates is better suited to the con- 

 ditions of most home orchardists than 

 storage in bulk or barrels. 



STORAGE CELLARS THAT KEEP FRUIT 



The cellar is mostly a matter of expediency. 

 A good house cellar solves the problem for 

 most people. I have seen hundreds of 

 cellars that keep fruit about as well as any 

 artificial storage plant ever patented. From 

 one of those old cellars in New England, that 

 I haunted in my boyhood, I had every year 

 Lawrence pears in April, and Roxbury 

 apples in July, when apples came again. 

 The chief difficulty with many house cellars 

 is that they are poorly ventilated, and often 

 poorly draintd ; and some are not frost proof. 

 A cellar that cannot be thoroughly ventilated, 

 letting the foul air escape and the fresh, cold 

 air enter, cannot keep fruit well. Be liberal 

 with windows in the cellar. Put in a cold- 

 air flue if you can conveniently. Six-inch 

 sewer pipes about ten feet apart, placed 

 close to the floor, answer the purpose well. 

 Drain it so that it will never be wet; keep the 

 air sweet by removing decayed fruits and by 

 ventilation. If the cellar is too dry, causing 

 the fruit to shrivel, supply water. This is 

 apt to be needed in cellars having cement 

 bottoms. Remove excessive moisture with a 

 box of quicklime. The possibilities of the 

 house cellar for storage are not realized by 

 most people. 



197. Wormy, scabby, bruised fruit, that some 

 people put into their cellars and KicK if it does not 

 Keep. Store only sound specimens, as decay is not 

 prevented by storage; it goes on slowly 



A method of storage that is practicable 

 only when nothing better can be had is the 

 "dugout," or side-hill cellar. This is simply 

 a room, placed either lengthwise or crosswise 

 of the hill, the roof being covered with soil 

 and three sides being against the hill. If 

 the roof becomes turfed, so much the better. 

 The walls are of stone or wood, and usually 

 with no air spaces. Ventilation should be 

 provided as for other storage houses. Dug- 

 outs are usually inferior in efficiency, and 

 certainly less convenient than a good house 

 cellar, but they are sometimes the only kind 

 that is practicable ._ 



The storage of fruit in pits out of doors, 

 which was a common practice in pioneer 

 days, is seldom necessary now. The fruit 

 was stored in windrows covered with straw, 

 and then with soil, with upright tufts of straw 

 projecting through the soil for ventilation. 

 The fruit often kept surprisingly well, but the 

 inconvenience of the method condemns it. 



A small ice house is a great convenience. 

 Briefly, the important points in the con- 

 struction of a cheap ice storage house are 

 these: It contains two rooms, one above the 

 other. The upper is used for ice and the 

 lower for fruit. Building the house against 

 a side hill makes it easier to fill the ice room, 

 and also increases the efficiency of the fruit 

 room. The walls against the soil are prefer- 

 ably stone or brick; the other walls may be 

 of wood, or all may be of wood. The wooden 

 walls should contain one or more dead-air 

 spaces, such as would be made by sheathing 

 a 2 x 6-inch joist on both sides. These 

 spaces may be filled with sawdust, hay, 

 straw, leaves, excelsior or other material, 

 but generally it is preferred to leave them 

 empty. Below the ice floor is a sheet of 

 galvanized iron or tin to catch the drip, and 

 a pipe conducts it outside the building. The 

 floor joist is not boarded next the wall, and 



198. Scabbed pears not worth picKing. Neglect 

 of spraying, tillage or other necessary care shows 

 in the fruit. MaKe better plans now for next year. 

 What shall the harvest be? 



the cold air settles down from the ice into 

 the room below through the opening. The 

 excess of moisture in the storage room is 

 taken up with quicklime. Ventilation is 

 secured at the top and from windows on the 

 sides. Such a house, while of crude construc- 

 tion, is cheap and serviceable. It is, of course, 

 practicable only when ice is easily obtained. 



ICELESS COLD STORAGE 



When ice storage is not feasible, an un- 

 refrigerated house, built on the same lines, 

 but with only one room, answers the purpose 

 nearly as well. If this house is built into a 

 side hill it is easier to regulate the tempera- 

 ture. One or more air spaces in the walls 

 are essential. The temperature of this house 

 is controlled entirely by ventilation. In sum- 

 mer and fall, the windows or ventilating flue 

 are opened during the night, when the air is 

 coolest, and are closed very early in the 

 morning. In Northern states, a temperature 

 of about 50 may be maintained at this sea- 

 son in this way. The cold air may enter 

 through windows, wooden flues or tile flues, 

 the two latter being placed near the floor, 

 and extending through the wall and several 

 feet outside. The house should of course be 

 frost-proof. 



If a commercial fruit or provision storage 

 plant is handy, it may sometimes be advan- 

 tageous to get the winter fruit stored there; the 

 usual charge is about twenty cents a barrel 

 per month. 



After fruit is put in storage move and sort 

 it as little as possible. Frequent handling 

 does more harm than good, as a rule. Watch 

 the temperature of the cellar and ventilate 

 frequently. The temperature for keeping 

 apples and pears varies from 32 to about 40 , 

 according to the variety, the season and other 

 factors. Apples may even be slightly frozen 

 without harm if thev are thawed gradually. 



199. A typical home cellar with earth floor. When 

 properly ventilated and dry, it will Keep fruit as well 

 as more expensive storage cellars 



200. Crates usually have no advantage, save 

 convenience, over barrels. PicKing fruit into these 

 crates, grading while picKing, saves handling 



201. A cheap, efficient fruit storage cellar. Two 

 sides are against a banK of soil: air spaces are in 

 the walls. Good ventilation and dryness are necessary 



