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able, on account of its strong odour of turpentine. A portion 
of solid shelving should be fitted up, if possible, with lids, for 
keeping the superior late Flemish Pears. Fruit, of all kinds, 
keeps extremely well placed on a layer of cap paper, provided 
the room is pretty dry ; this, in the case of very superior kinds, 
may be laid double. The cap paper forms a soft bedding for 
them, and will prevent decaying fruit from staining the shelves; 
it will, also, prevent any unpleasant flavour being imparted to 
the fruit, from its contact wilh the wood. The room in general 
should be freely ventilated, on fine days, for some weeks ; the 
degree of ventilation being regulated by the amount of con- 
densed steam on the inner surface of the windows. As soon as 
this condensed moisture declines, the room should be kept more 
close ; but after the early part of November, the fruit room can 
rarely be ventilated with advantage, unless it be for an hour or 
two in a dry windy day. Darkness certainly seems to be of 
importance ; how the exclusion of light acts we are not aware, 
unless it hinder the spread of destructive fungi. This advantage 
is readily obtained, by keeping the shutters generally closed; 
and when hard frosts occur, mats must be nailed over the shut- 
ters, inclosing a coating of hay, six inches thick. An excellent 
account of these fungi may be found in the Gardeners’ Chro- 
nicle, for 1842, page 739, by Arthur Hill Hassall, Esq. 
These instructions should not be closed without mention of 
other methods practised by some good pomologisfs for the pre- 
servation of the finer fruits. One of them is, to place the fruit 
in boxes, with alternate layers of cleanly-washed dry sand ; so 
that each single layer may be kept completely apart from that 
above or below it. Fruit kept in this way, with due precaution 
as to temperature, &c., retains, in an admirable degree, all its 
freshness of flavour and appearance : but two disadvantages 
accompany it; the one is, that it precludes convenient exami- 
nation as to the decay of the fruit ; and the other, that the usual 
care bestowed on it, before being brought to table, will not 
completely clear it from the sand. In the eye, and in the cavity 
of the stem, sandy particles will be left, which, even with care- 
ful paring, will be liable to attach to the fruit, and produce 
in eating very disagreeable sensations. To avoid this incon- 
venience, some fruit growers wrap every Apple or Pear singly 
in paper, and then proceed as mentioned. Others wrap them 
