Noveir.tssr CS, 1383. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
485 
being to flower it during the principal autumn and winter months. 
During June and July the plant is allowed to run rough, and is 
kept rather dry at the roots, but not sufficient to do harm to the wood 
tmd foliage, affording plenty of air night and day in order to ripen 
the wood and give the plant a rest. About the beginning of August 
the necessary pruning is done by cutting out many of the gross 
■shoots, thinning others wdiere too thick, and laying in sufficient to 
well furnish the wall. Then a few inches of the surface soil of the 
border is removed and replaced by a mixture of two-thirds loam 
and the other leaf soil, and made very firm. Then a thorough 
•soaking of water is given at two or three different times to make 
sure the whole is well moistened. The plant soon starts into 
growth, and in a short time produces flowers, which it will continue 
to do more or less the whole winter. As all the Abutilons make 
roots freely when in a confined space they soon ramble through 
the whole mass of soil; therefore weak manure water should be 
applied once a week, and other waterings as often as required, in 
•order to keep up the vigour of the plant. 
The flowers, when cut, are arranged in shallow vases with sprays 
of Asparagus plumosus intermixed, and they have a very pretty 
effect. G-reen fly is liable to attack the young growth, and to 
prevent that as much as possible, I syringe the plant heavily occa¬ 
sionally with clear water from the garden engine, the small syringe 
is not powerful enough to dislodge them ; no fumigating being 
allowed in the conservatory.— Thomas Record. 
THE FRUIT ROOM. 
It is certainly much to be regretted that although most 
structures intended for horticultural purposes have received their 
full share of attention, and the most approved modes of erecting 
them have been at times ably discussed in this Journal and other 
gardening works, the fruit-room has scarcely ever received a 
passing notice. Assuredly this cannot arise from the indifference 
with which it is regarded, for it is of the utmost possible import¬ 
ance ; but somehow fruit-rooms, generally so called, form such 
uninviting features in most gardens that they are never visited 
by fashionable company. That this should be the case is unfor¬ 
tunate, for a good collection of Apples and Pears in the month of 
November is as well worth inspecting as anything the plant houses 
■contain at that time ; but when a makeshift of a shed, or some 
hovel of no longer any other use, has to be put in requisition 
for the purpose of keeping fruits, those having the management of 
it naturally shrink from inviting anyone to see their collection 
when huddled together in such humble quarters. They neverthe¬ 
less manage now and then to keep their fruit pretty well in such 
houses or sheds, and not unfrequently better than is sometimes 
■done in structures of greater pretensions, and we are, therefore, led 
to inquire if there is not something wrong with the latter, and a 
•careful investigation into the matter confirms the suspicion that this 
is really the case. The subject of keeping winter fruit being so 
important, let us examine tbe elements which either lead to success 
or the contrary. 
When we look into the mode which Nature adopts to insure the 
reproduction of each species, we find that all seed-vessels or recep¬ 
tacles have a function to perform, and when this is accomplished 
they perish. Some seeds are scattered abroad by the bursting of 
the seed pod, and by a jerk thrown some distance. Others are 
clothed with down, and dispersed far and wide by the wind. Others 
depend on their removal being effected either by birds, animals, or 
some similar agency, and of such, perhaps, the Apple and Pear may 
be accounted examples, while they also exhibit the seed enclosed 
in a fleshy substance capable of resisting decay for a greater or less 
period—in the wild ones, certainly until the proper time for 
depositing the seed in the ground ; and assuming the fruit to fall 
where it is grown, the conditions for its keeping are prepared for 
it by natural means. Dead leaves and herbage form a sort of 
nest as well as a covering, securing the preservation of the seeds 
until the appropriate time for their being deposited in the earth. 
Our object, however, is the preservation of the fruit, and the seed 
is no further regarded than as being a component pai't of the fruit; 
but as Nature has shown us that a cool and far-from-dry medium 
serves all the purposes of keeping the fruits spoken of through the 
inclement part of the winter, we may not be far w r rong in copying 
to a certain extent some of the conditions thus laid down. 
It being shown that a cold medium is the best to prevent decay 
in the fruit now under consideration, the question arises, How is 
a cool atmosphere to be obtained ? To a certain extent we have 
but little control over the temperature, for though we might 
increase that of the atmosphere of the room, we cannot easily 
diminish it ; but something may be done in the latter way, or, at 
all events, the evils of overheating our fruit-rooms may be avoided. 
To crowd a house with Apples and Pears in the warm weather of 
the early part of September is making it little better than a pest 
house, especially if there be very little ventilation ; for the quan¬ 
tity of fruit lying in so confined a space engenders heat, or, what 
is equally bad, vapours are given out that are anything but favour¬ 
able to the preservation of the fruit. Yet how common it is to 
crowd the fruit-room so early in the season. Apples keep falling, 
and birds and wasps attack the Pears, arid, consequently, there 
appears to be no alternative but covering the shelves with fruit, 
perhaps three or four thick. Ripening takes place with more or 
less rapidity in consequence of the forcing to which the fruit is 
subjected, the close stifled state of the room, and the warm condi¬ 
tion of the external air hurrying on the ripening 
Assuming, therefore, the position in which Nature often deposits 
her fruits to be on the whole favourable to their keeping (and we 
often see that an Apple which has fallen softly amongst long grass 
or other herbage exhibits as high a state of preservation when found 
there in winter as others of its kind when housed in the ordinary 
way), we are led to consider that plenty of fresh air is by no means 
unfavourable to the keeping of such fruits. On this account, 
therefore, our fruit-rooms ought to be well ventilated, and they 
ought not to be too low, or if from circumstances they must be so, 
they should be ventilated at the top as well as at the sides and 
ends. The best form for a fruit-room when it stands alone is an 
ordinary span-roof, laid on dry—that is, not embedded in mortar in 
the usual way ; below the rafters the roof may be ceiled halfway 
up following the inclination of the rafters, with a flat space of 
some 3 or 4 feet in the centre, in which a latticed ventilator may 
be fixed, the latticework very open, and extending the whole length 
of the room. There should be a sort of contrivance for closing 
the latticework—a board, say on hinges, like a long trap-door. 
This is better than sliding latticework, as the latter is apt to get 
out of order, and is not easily moved. The tiles, being open, will 
allow all vapours that find their way into the apex of the roof to 
pass through, and the ventilator will only require closing in severe 
weather. In dry situations it would also answer as well to have 
the house partly under ground, say 3 feet or so ; this tends to keep 
the temperature more equal, and in the hot dry weather of the 
dog-days is certainly a relief from the heated air outside. The side 
and end ventilators may be of glass, not allowing, however, any 
windows to the south, and for the same reason it would be better 
if the building rvere shaded from the mid-day sun in that direction, 
buildings being better for that purpose than trees. The situation 
ought also to be unconfined, and free from all noxious vapours and 
damp exhalations. The internal fittings might be in the usual 
way, a series of shelves all round, and a table shelf in the centre, 
and if the latter had drawers in it so much the better. The shelves 
ought not to be too close above each other—four or five in a tier 
is quite plenty—the highest one being at least 7 feet from the 
ground. It is customary to make the shelves partially open, but I 
am not certain that this is required. One of the best-keeping 
fruit-rooms I ever' had to deal with had slate shelves, close and 
impervious. Care, however, was required not to allow the fruit to 
tumble about on a shelf so hard. I am no advocate for straw, or 
anything of that kind, under the fruit. 
There are many conditions in ■which fruit has been kept 
tolerably well, and for a long period. A cool cellar is not by any 
means a bad place, only the quantity ought not to be large, or ven¬ 
tilation must be obtained ; but the currents of fresh air that are 
wanted in September may in a great measure be dispensed with in 
December, or, at all events, much less will do. A cellar is better 
than a great many fruit-rooms. I have also retarded some fruit in 
an ice-house and kept it later there than it would have kept in 
another place, but the propriety of retarding fruits, excepting for 
special purposes, is much questioned ; certainly the flavour is dete¬ 
riorated. I have also seen a quantity of Apples buried in the 
ground like Potatoes. This was merely for an experiment, and 
the result was that many of them burst, much the same as a 
Potato will when boiled with the peel on. Keeping them in a 
chalk-pit or cave approaches so much to the cellar that it may be 
classed as the same. Sheds of all kinds are used to store Apples 
in most places where they are grown abundantly, and in Kent 
thousands of bushels are kept in heaps on the floor of the hop- 
drying kilns, which, being lofty and airy, are by no means bad 
places. The great misfortune is, the fruit often laid in heaps 
from 2 to 3 feet thick, and a little straw thrown over it in severe 
weather. Keeping Apples in air-tight boxes or jars has been 
abandoned of late years, and casks of various kinds are occasionally 
used, but more frequently for transporting fruit than for storing it 
away. Although Apples will occasionally keep a long time under 
conditions different from those now given, it is not to be inferred 
that these methods are better, as the fruit might, perhaps, have 
kept a little longer if fairly tried in the way described 
Before closing these remarks I may observe, that as tiuit 
