496 



MISCELLANEOUS GARDEN STRUCTURES. 



earthenware jars or similar cases, and 

 buried, they may be taken up in quanti- 

 ties as they are required. 



The great success attending the method 

 of preserving fruit practised by Mr Moor- 

 man, Clapham Road, London, led that 

 indefatigable pomologist, Mr Thompson, 

 of the London Horticultural Society, to 

 visit his fruit-room, and to draw up an 

 account of it, which has recently been 

 published in the Journal of that Society. 

 This room, Mr Thompson observes, was 

 not originally constructed for a fruit- 

 room, but is a partitioned-off portion of 

 a loft, which extends over a coach-house 

 and stables, and was originally fitted up 

 for a harness-room. The walls, as is 

 usual in such places, are lined with wood ; 

 the roof is slated ; the building is de- 

 tached, and faces the south-west. There 

 is " a cavity between the boarding and 

 the walls," which Mr Thompson believes 

 is an important circumstance, " and so is 

 the wooden lining, because air and wood 

 are known to be slow conductors of heat. 

 The ceiling on the north side is double, 

 and the floor is wood above a ceiling. 

 We may therefore conclude," that autho- 

 rity says, " that a uniformity of tempera- 

 ture in the interior of the room is insured 

 to a considerable extent." There is in 

 this room a small stove ; " but it is seldom 

 used, and never with the view of warm- 

 ing the air of the room, unless the tem- 

 perature is actually below freezing. The 

 fruit is therefore kept cool." The win- 

 dow is occasionally opened, " but is at all 

 times covered with a roller-blind, so that 

 the fruit is kept in the dark. A little fire 

 in the stove (air being freely admitted 

 by the windows at the same time in a dry 

 day) is useful for speedily removing any 

 damp which may arise from the fruit. 

 The shelves have a layer of clean drawn 

 straw laid across them, and on this the 

 fruit is placed singly." 



From a consideration of all the above 

 details, it may be inferred that, if a fruit- 

 room be built over a place where there is 

 a free circulation of air, its roof double 

 ceiled, the walls lined with wood, a ca- 

 vity being left between these two, it will 

 possess the essential properties of a fitting 

 house for the purpose. 



Mr Thompson observes, "The more 

 important principles necessary to attend 

 to, with regard to the long keeping of 



fruit, are, uniformity of temperature, 

 coolness, and darkness. If the tempera- 

 ture is uniform, there can be little or no 

 deposition of moisture on the surface of 

 the fruit ; but if the air of the room 

 should be, say 10° warmer than the fruit, 

 then the relative coldness of the latter 

 will cause a condensation of the moisture 

 contained in the air in contact with the 

 fruit, just as a cold glass becomes dewed 

 over when brought into a warm atmo- 

 sphere. If the air is indeed very dry, 

 then a proportion ably greater difference 

 of temperature is necessary to produce 

 the above effect ; but in winter the hygro- 

 meter seldom requires to be cooled more 

 than a few degrees before it indicates a 

 deposition of moisture. Fruits with 

 smooth glossy skins, in close contact 

 with the cold substance beneath them, 

 are those most profusely covered with 

 moisture" — the Nonsuch apple may be 

 given as an example — "from the above 

 cause. In russeted varieties, their dry 

 rough coats serve as non-conductors of 

 heat, and hence less moisture is deposited 

 on them. When the air becomes colder 

 than the fruit, a contrary action — that of 

 evaporation — takes place, and the sur- 

 face of the fruit becomes dry. But this 

 wetting and drying must prove very in- 

 jurious ; whilst its cause — alternations of 

 temperature — must likewise affect the 

 specific gravity of the juices of the fruit." 



The fruit kept in such a room as is 

 described above "is not exposed to such 

 vicissitudes; for when the weather be- 

 comes frosty, it is several days before the 

 thermometer" in such a room " is affected 

 as much as one degree." 



In regard to ventilation, Mr Thompson 

 remarks that air should only be given at 

 a period of the day "when the thermo- 

 meter outside indicates the same tempe- 

 rature as that in the room. No deposi- 

 tion of moisture can then take place in 

 consequence." 



In reference to a low temperature he says, 

 " It is well known that this condition is 

 favourable to the long keeping of fruit ; 

 for we act on the contrary principle when 

 we wish to render any variety fit for use 

 before its usual time." An elevated fruit- 

 room, constructed like that described, is 

 cooler on an average than one on the 

 ground floor, and also more so than one 

 sunk under the surface, more especially 



