THE FRUIT-ROOM. 



495 



exclusion from air, a cool and uniform tem- 

 perature, an atmosphere neither too dry nor 

 too moist, and total darhiess. Is it, then, in 

 fruit-rooms, as usually constructed, that 

 fruit is to be expected to keep best, where 

 they are exposed to the opposites of these 

 conditions, and where even stoves and 

 flues are recommended to be considered 

 as necessary appendages 1 The subject 

 appears to have been hitherto misunder- 

 stood. The whole operations have been 

 carried on in one apartment, which ought 

 to have been distributed among two or 

 three— the first for arranging, the second 

 for ripening, and the other for retarding. 

 Two apartments, at least, are absolutely 

 necessary — the one complying with all 

 the conditions above stated for prolong- 

 ing, and the other for ripening them off. 

 This latter is in itself indispensable ; and 

 such a form as that exhibited in our dia- 

 gram is of a very proper and fitting 

 construction. In it the summer fruit 

 should be placed as gathered from the 

 trees ; and the daily dessert fruit, and 

 peaches, pines, apricots, plums, cherries, 

 melons, &c, as they ripen, should be also 

 deposited in it until disposed of. It 

 should be at all times kept neat and 

 clean, furnished with chairs and writing- 

 materials, paper, &c, for packing, and be 

 in such a state that the owner may visit 

 it with his friends. The means for admit- 

 ting ventilation and light should be 

 abundant when either is required ; but 

 as a moderately cool temperature should 

 exist in it, it ought to face the north. 



As regards the other department, we 

 think it should be in a cellar under the 

 former ; but this cellar should be con- 

 structed with hollow walls, and even the 

 floor of it laid over a vault, so as to cut off 

 all chances of conduction of heat from the 

 soil surrounding it. It should be so con- 

 structed as to be in all respects capable of 

 fulfilling the conditions above stated. 

 There may be an entrance to it through 

 the floor of the former ; and the neces- 

 sary top ventilation may be carried up 

 through the side walls, and the lower 

 ventilation by tubes passing down the 

 sides of the walls externally, and through 

 them quite on a line with the floor. This 

 mode of ventilation will exclude vermin 

 as well as heated air. In regard to its 

 internal arrangements, there can be no 

 harm in having it fitted up with trellised 



shelves, upon which to lay the fruit. A 

 great portion, however, of the best should 

 be packed in jars, upon Stewart's prin- 

 ciple ; the coarser kinds in casks or 

 boxes, in dry fern ; and the medium sorts 

 in boxes mixed with dry sand. Each 

 kind should be kept separate, as they 

 will require to be examined, and, when 

 necessary, removed to the ripening cham- 

 ber above. For this purpose, they should 

 be correctly named or numbered, to pre- 

 vent mistakes. It is in cellars that the 

 majority of the fruit on the Continent is 

 kept. The construction of the houses is 

 favourable for this purpose — they being in 

 general cellared under nearly their whole 

 extent. In these — at least those of them 

 that we have visited — very little arrange- 

 ment has apparently been made : the fruit 

 often being laid in large heaps, sometimes 

 buried in dry sand, packed in boxes or 

 barrels, or indeed arranged in any way 

 that will occupy as little space as possible. 

 Notwithstanding all this apparent want 

 of care, the fruit keeps well, and is from 

 time to time carefully turned over, and 

 the decaying ones removed. Indeed, in 

 this particular they take great pains, and 

 do not leave one that has the slightest 

 incipient symptoms of decay. By this 

 means they prevent the spread of the 

 minute fungi alluded to in this section. 

 Now, what is the cause of fruit so treated 

 keeping so well 1 Can it be attributed 

 to any other cause than that the condi- 

 tions we have stated are complied with 

 to the fullest extent ? With them we see 

 or hear of no expensive erection for keep- 

 ing fruit, although the quantity over most 

 of Europe is far greater than even with us. 

 With them orchards and hedgerows of 

 fruit-trees abound ; and there is scarcely 

 a meal we sit down to anywhere, from the 

 palace to the cottage, without fruit in some 

 shape or other making its appearance. 



These general principles we have laid 

 down are also in exact accordance with 

 the method of keeping apples and pears, 

 particularly the former, in pits under- 

 ground, as is done with potatoes. We 

 have kept apples till April and May in 

 this manner ; and once, on the 20th 

 October 1838, had several bushels of 

 apples of the growth of 1837 in excellent 

 preservation. Apples, however, kept in 

 this manner, soon decay when brought 

 into the light and air ; but if kept in 



