490 



MISCELLANEOUS GARDEN STRUCTURES. 



farthest compartment. The reason for 

 such an arrangement is, that the com- 

 partment next the door may be ventilated 

 without opening the other divisions ; and 

 as ripening fruit requires more ventilation 

 than such as is still immature, this is an 

 important provision. Then, when the 

 first division is empty, the second may be 

 opened and ventilated without interfering 

 with the third. In such a case, however, 

 when a chamber is over the room, the 

 second and third compartments must 

 have chimneys carried through the floor, 

 and ceiling also, of the chamber. 



" In situations where the fruit-room 

 can be built adjoining a hothouse, it 

 would be advantageous to construct an 

 additional closet, which may be warmed 

 by the flue of the hothouse, in order to 

 receive winter pears. These are all ex- 

 ceedingly improved if gradually intro- 

 duced to a temperature of 60° or there- 

 abouts, in which to ripen." 



The interior fitting up is slightly treated 

 on in this excellent paper : " There must 

 be shelves, composed of parallel rails, on 

 which to store away the fruit, and a 

 table, on which to place it occasionally, 

 and wooden boxes and earthen jars, in 

 which to pack particular varieties. The 

 only thing that is material to observe is, 

 the quality of the wood, which must not 

 be such as to communicate an unpleasant 

 taste to the fruit that touches it. Good, 

 clean pine wood, or white deal, is probably 

 the best material that can be employed." 



Every variety of pine timber communi- 

 cates more or less a terebinthous or tur- 

 pentine flavour to fruit, at least for seve- 

 ral years after it has been first used. 

 Beech, although not a very durable wood, 

 is better ; and, from all our experience, we 

 would say poplar is the best, not only as 

 communicating no bad flavour, but also 

 on account of its durability, and the 

 beautiful, clean, white appearance it has 

 — a merit which has led to its introduc- 

 tion as a flooring boarding in houses of 

 the first class. 



An anonymous correspondent in the 

 work last quoted offers the following judi- 

 cious remarks on this subject, which we 

 are induced to give nearly at length ; for, 

 as we have already remarked, the very 

 important subject of fruit-rooms has 

 hitherto been very superficially noticed in 

 works on horticulture. This being the 



case, we are the more disposed to avail 

 ourselves of as much information as we 

 can command, that the various opinions 

 may be brought together, so as to enable 

 the reader to judge for himself, and to 

 adopt that plan most suitable to existing 

 circumstances, and, at the same time, 

 most adapted to carrying out the end in 

 view. " When a room is wanted to pre- 

 serve apples and pears to as great a length 

 of time as it is possible for these fruits to 

 keep, it ought always to be fixed in as 

 cool a place as possible, — even a cellar 

 keeps apples well : though I do not 

 advise a fruit-room to be entirely under 

 ground, I yet think it ought to be par- 

 tially so. The reason why I recom- 

 mend a humid atmosphere is, from fre- 

 quently having found apples in the spring 

 months amongst strawberry leaves, long 

 grass, &c, under the trees : thus fallen oft', 

 they were in a better state of preservation 

 than those stored in the usual manner." 

 This writer lays the usual stress on the 

 necessity of careful gathering, recom- 

 mends placing the fruit singly on the 

 shelves with the crown up, as decay 

 generally takes place first near the crown : 

 it is then much easier perceived. He 

 also, like ourselves, prefers laying the 

 fruit on the shelves at once, and dispenses 

 altogether with the ceremony of sweating 

 them, and very properly advises as little 

 handling of the fruit as possible, as that 

 not only bruises them, but also removes 

 that " greasy substance which all apples, 

 more or less, exhale, and which I con- 

 sider is one of the most essential requi- 

 sites to their keeping well, — as it forms 

 a sort of natural varnish or coating of 

 paint sufficient to exclude all moisture, 

 and instead of being hurtful is congenial, 

 by checking the too rapid perspiration of 

 the fruit." By this authority we find that 

 frost is not so injurious to the keeping of 

 apples as some suppose, else those found 

 by him, as well as hundreds of times by 

 ourselves, under the circumstances above 

 stated, would not have been sound in 

 spring, when merely covered with a few 

 strawberry leaves or long grass under the 

 trees. 



Regarding ventilation he says : " Too 

 much ventilation is apt to cause the fruit 

 to shrivel, or wither rather, prematurely, 

 long before they ought to do so ; it is, 

 therefore, for that reason that I recom- 



