68 



THE APPLE. 



necessary that the fruit should be gathered by hand. For winter fruit 

 the gathering is delayed as long as possible, avoiding severe frosts; and 

 the most successful practice with our extensive orchardists is to place the 

 good fruit directly, in a careful manner, in new, tight flour-barrels as 

 soon as gathered from the tree. These barrels should be gently shaken 

 while filling, and the head closely pressed in ; they are then placed in a 

 cool, shady exposure, under a shed open to the air, or on the north side 

 of a building, protected by covering of boards over the top, where they 

 remain for a fortnight, or until the cold becomes too severe, when they 

 are carefully transferred to a cool, dry cellar, in which air can be admit- 

 ted occasionally in brisk weather. 



Another method, by some regarded as superior, and tending to keep 

 the fruit longer and better, is to gather carefully, in a dry day, as late as 

 possible in the fall, and place the fruit on a floor, or in open bins, from 

 one foot to sixteen inches in depth. After about a week examine, and 

 if the dampness, commonly called sweat, has passed off, prepare a good 

 clean barrel, and as each fruit is placed in the barrel, see that it is made 

 perfectly dry by wiping it with a soft cloth. As soon as the barrel is 

 filled, head it up securely and place it in a cool, dry cellar. 



A cellar for this purpose should be dug in dry, gravelly, or sandy 

 soil, with, if possible, a slope to the north ; or, at any rate, with open- 

 ings on the north side for the admission of air very rarely in weather 

 not excessively cold. Here the barrels should be placed in tiers on their 

 sides, and the cellar should be kept as dark as possible. In such a cellar, 

 one of the largest apple-growers in Dutchess County is able to keep the 

 Greening Apple, which, in the fruit-room, usually decays in January, 

 until the 1st of April, in the freshest and finest condition. Some per- 

 sons place a layer of clean rye-straw between every layer of apples, when 

 packing them in the barrels. 



Apples are frequently kept by farmers in pits or ridges in the ground, 

 covered with straw and a layer of earth, in the same manner as potatoes ; 

 but it is an inferior method, and the fruit very speedily decays when 

 opened to the air. The English apple-growers lay their fruit in heaps, 

 in cool, dry cellars, and cover them with straw. 



Various plans and methods have been designed for the keeping of 

 fruit, few, if any of which are found practically adapted to the general 

 wants of a family. Among those most prominent is the Roberts Fruit 

 House, which is constructed by forming a room inside of an ice-house, 

 having the ice around the sides and overhead ; and with an arrangement : 

 for drainage below, by means of a pipe beneath the floor, and a condens- < 

 ing-tube inside the chamber or fruit-room. 



The Nyce Fruit House is constructed with upright walls, sheeted on 

 the inside and outside with sheet-iron, nailed to upright studding, and 

 having the inside space closely packed with sawdust or chatf. Above 

 the fruit-room is a floor of galvanized iron, on which ice, five to six feet i 

 in depth, is packed, and from it a tube or pipe is led off, for the purpose i 

 of conveying the water as the ice melts. Below the floor of the fruit- i 

 room, which is also of galvanized iron, shavings three feet thick are first I 

 laid, and then coated with tar and pitch, to prevent any rise of mois- ! 

 ture from below. The temperature is kept at all seasons at just above i 

 the freezing-point, and the moisture from the fruit engendered in the \ 

 room is absorbed by the use of " bittern " from salt-works. This absorp- | 

 tion of moisture by means of chloride of calcium, or the waste bittern of \ 



