THE FRUIT-ROOM. 



493 



of which should be numbered, and a 

 table or slate containing the correspond- 

 ing numbers may be hung up in the 

 room ; and opposite each number should 

 be a space for noting down daily the 

 number taken out of each sieve for use." 



The fruit-room in the Horticultural 

 Society's garden at Chiswick is a long, 

 narrow apartment, having a northern 

 exposure. The floors are formed of con- 

 crete, to prevent rats or mice from getting 

 in ; a counter-like table occupies the 

 centre, and the sides are fitted up with 

 shelves of open trellis-work, on which the 

 fruit is laid. Such, we may here observe, 

 is the general form and arrangement of 

 what may be called the better sorts of 

 fruit-rooms. The fruit-room at Dalkeith 

 is almost a fac-simile of this one, being 

 furnished with shutters to the windows 

 inside, and box- ventilators a through to the 

 ceilings, and extended to an opening in 

 the top of the back wall, as will be seen 

 by fig. 709. In this fig. we have shown 



Fig. 709. 



c 















d 







what we consider to be the best kind of 

 building for this purpose. The walls are 

 built hollow, to resist external damp, heat, 

 and cold. Ventilation is carried on by 

 an opening in the ceiling, and the damp 

 or foul air made to escape through the 

 box a, and out at the top of the wall. 

 Both ends of this ventilating tube are to 

 be shut, when necessary, by letting down 

 the flap lids b b, to which a line and pul- 

 leys are applied for the purpose. The 

 ceiling is triple-coated with plaster, and 

 deafened with nogging above. The slates 

 are laid in mortar, also to exclude air, and 

 double-thick sarking is laid under them, 

 tongued and grooved. Thin canvass cur- 

 tains, hung on rollers c c, are let up and 

 down in front of the shelves, to exclude air 

 and light when it may be necessary to open 



the door. The fruit is laid upon the side 

 shelves d d, on both sides, and the opera- 

 tion of sorting is carried on on the counter- 

 like table e in the centre. Under this 

 table are drawers, /, for the finer spe- 

 cimens of both apples and pears. The 

 whole of this apartment is darkened by 

 keeping the window-shutters shut ; and 

 as the decomposition of fruit appears not 

 to be so much affected by candle light as 

 by solar light, the necessary operations 

 are carried on by that light entirely. We 

 have deemed it unnecessary to give a 

 ground-plan of this erection, as it will 

 appear sufficiently obvious and clear that 

 a vestibule or entrance apartment may 

 be made, in which specimens of the various 

 fruits may be exhibited, and where the 

 necessary operations of packing and ar- 

 ranging the dessert may go on. The side 

 shelves may be enclosed by having fold- 

 ing-doors in front of them, and they may 

 also be divided into compartments of from 

 6 to 1 0 feet in length each. If it be found 

 inconvenient to have a fruit-cellar under 

 such a room, it may, if of sufficient size, 

 be divided into two apartments, one of 

 which may be dedicated to the preserva- 

 tion of the later kinds, and therefore may 

 be kept darkened and shut up ; while 

 the other department is set apart for 

 cleaning, packing, exhibiting the fruit, 

 and ripening it off for use. 



Justice, Hitt, Forsyth, Smith, Stewart, 

 Knight, and others, recommended and 

 used earthenware jars, in which they 

 packed their best fruit — the two former 

 between layers of moss, and sinking 

 them to the depth of a foot in dry 

 sand in a cellar, in preference to keeping 

 them spread on tables or shelves in 

 a fruit-room : the moss should be dis- 

 pensed with. With this omission, there 

 is little difference between their prac- 

 tice and that of Mr Knight, who also 

 packed his in glazed earthenware vessels, 

 each fruit being wrapped up in paper 

 by itself. Prior to his using paper he 

 used oat-chaff and dry moss j but eventu- 

 ally he abandoned both, as communicating 

 a musty flavour to the fruit. The vessels 

 used were perfect cylinders, about a foot 

 in height — this being found a convenient 

 form for packing them closely together to 

 economise space. Stewart of Pinkie also 

 used glazed earthenware vessels, provided 

 with tops or covers, for his best fruit. In 



