of fruits and other commodities by Messrs. Sba- 
ler. Nvcc and Smith. Professor Nyce of Ohio 
had one of his houses built in Boston, to be con¬ 
trolled bv ice. and many constructed upon his 
plan are still in use in our large cities and 
large towns for the preservation of meats as 
weB as fruits. 
Mr. TTollings. in 18(58. used a house for the 
preservation of fruit, which proved very suc¬ 
cessful. This was regulated by ice; he used 
no chemicals or machinery—the temperature 
was kept at from 84° to 3(1°—the atmosphere was 
so cool and dry that no moisture was deposited 
on the walls, and there was no dripping from 
the ceiling. The most constant care was also 
given to ventilation, and the light was entire- 
ly excluded to prevent ripening and shrivel¬ 
ing. "With these arrangements so perfected, 
no gases or mixture of gases with atmospheric 
air were ever generated. In these houses he 
kept apples two or three years in perfect con¬ 
dition. His houses are still in suecesful opera¬ 
tion at Bristol, Pa. 
But the most common method for small es¬ 
tablishments and private usd is the construc¬ 
tion of houses with walls of non-conducting 
materials and with well drained and thorough¬ 
ly cemented cellars. Such was the house 
built by M. Victor Paquet, of Paris, about 40 
years ago. It was built with outer-end inner 
walls, with a space of three feet between; in 
fact, a house within a house, and so arranged 
that he could control the temperature at will, 
and which lie kept at a little below 40 c Fah¬ 
renheit. Our climate differs so much from 
that of Paris that we cannot follow all of M. 
Paquct's plans. Suffice it to say that by this 
process, without the use of ice, he kept his 
fruits in perfect, condition until June. 
On this plan, fruit houses may be construct¬ 
ed at a very moderate expense, in which fruits 
may be kept in all their beauty, freshness aud 
flavor through the entire season. The Anjou 
Pear has been exhibited as late as the mouth 
of May by the late Gardner Brewer, from his 
retarding house. 
Mr. Charles F. Curtis, one of the fruit mer¬ 
chants of Boston, informs Mr. Wilder that 
there is no perceptible difference Viet ween a 
cold storage house controlled by chemicals 
and one where ice is used. Each has its ad¬ 
vocates. 
One great secret of success begins in the 
state in which the fruit goes to the cooler. It 
should be before any specimen begins to show 
ripeness, and no single fruit should be stored 
that has fallen to the ground; for, however 
perfect it may seem, sooner or later that 
dropped fruit will tell its own story, and often 
cause the decay of the whole package when 
not noticed in time* which rarely happens 
when hundreds of bushels are piled one above 
another for a month or two. The fruit® in¬ 
tended for cold storage houses should go 
directly from the orchard. 
The fruit house of Elhvanger & Barry, at 
Rochester, N. Y., is a building where walls 
aud floor are lined with straw and boards, 
with cellars uudernoath for storing fruit. 
When the mercury goes 10° or 12 v below zero, 
a few 8° or 4 g of frost get in, but the boxes 
aud barrels are all covered with straw mats, 
aud are never readied by the frost. 
Wheu the late fall aud winter pears are 
gathered they are put iu bushel or half-bushel 
boxes, and placed ou the north side of a build¬ 
ing outside of the fruit house, and protected. 
They are kept there as long as t he weather 
will permit—by that time the room lias got 
thoroughly cooled and ready to receive the 
fruit. They had both pears aud apples there 
in perfection April 10th, 
In the report of the Michigan Horticultural 
Society for 1882 is an account, by Mr. S. W. 
Dorr, of a fruit, house constructed by him, ou 
the cold-air system, without the use of ice. 
He lays down the principle that iu order to 
keep fruit for any great length of time the 
store-room must be frost-proof aud kept at a 
low, even temperature—three or four degrees 
above freezing, with sufficient ventilation to 
carry off all moisture and impurities. He 
was able to keep his house within three degrees 
of freezing for five months, anil when the 
temperature outside changed GO degrees iu 24 
hours, the change iu the fruit room was im¬ 
perceptible. Again, wheu the thermometer 
fell to from six to 20 degrees lie low zero, for 
five days iu succession, the temperature scarce¬ 
ly changed one degree in the fruit house. This 
result was effected by building a house with 
triple walls, 16 inches in thickness, 10 inches 
of which were filled with sawdust. 
The. conditions of success may be briefly 
stated ns follows: Thr perfect control of light 
and moisture. All experience shows that 
these conditions must bo complied with or 
success cannot bo attained; hence these apart¬ 
ments must be cool, and constructed so as to 
exclude at pleasure the external atmosphere, 
which starts fermentation. After many years 
of experience, both with and without ice, Mr. 
Wilder adopted a house built in a cool, shady' 
THE RURAL WEW=!0RKER. 
433 
aspect, with the door on the north, and with a 
thoroughly drained and cemented cellar, with 
small, double windows, which may be opened 
or closed at pleasure. In this way he is 
enabled to keep bis late fall and winter pears 
until February or March in good condition. 
Apples may l>e kept at a lower temperature 
than pears—say 30 to 40 degrees. 
In a fruit room of this kind, Mr. John J. 
Thomas savs that by admitting air on cold 
nights, and closing the entrances when the air 
is warm, he has had sound Lawrence pears in 
March, and Josephine of Malines in April, and 
Baldwin apples in June. 
Mr. Wilder’s fall and winter fruits, intend¬ 
ed for long keeping, are allowed to remain on 
the trees until frost is apprehended. They are 
then gathered with great care into bushel 
baskets, and placed on the north side of his 
fruit house in tiers of boxes six or seven feet 
high, aud covered with hoards, where they 
are kept until the ground begins to freeze. 
They are then removed to the cellar, piled up 
in the same manner, with thin strips of boards 
or shingles between the boxes, until wanted 
for use. when the boxes are looked over and 
the most mature are from time to time taken 
out. In this way he keeps pears until March 
or April in perfect condition. 
In regard to the use of ice. Mr. Wilder said 
that where fruits are kept for some months 
under its influence at a low temperature, they 
seem to lose much of their flavor; the cellular 
tissue also seems to have become dry, and to 
have lost its vitality or power to resume the 
ripening process. Experience proves that., 
for the common varieties of the pear, about 
40 degrees of Fahrenheit is the temperature 
best suited to hold this process in equilibrium. 
The proper maturing of fruit thus preserved 
demands skill and science. Different varie¬ 
ties require different degrees of moisture and 
heat, according to the firmness of the skin and 
the texture of the flesh. Thus, some varieties 
of the pear will ripen at a low temperature 
and in a comparatively dry atmosphere, while 
others are improved by a warm and humid 
air. Some varieties of the pear ripening with 
difficulty.aud formerly esteemed only second- 
rate, are now pronounced of excellent quality 
because the art of maturing 'them is better 
understood. Great improvement has been 
made in the handling, packiug ami preserva¬ 
tion of fruits, so that they are delivered iu 
perfect condition from distant places, every 
class of fruit having its suitable style of pack¬ 
age. So well is the art of keeping grapes now 
understood that, we have them in our markets 
in such fine order as to command from 15 to 20 
cents ]>er pound until the month of May. 
Robert Manning thought, that the most 
critical time in regard to keeping fruit is the 
warm days in Autumn—the lovely Indian- 
summer dnys of October. Especial care is 
then needed to keep them cool. 
Mr. Wilder said, in answer to au inquiry, 
that everything depends on the condition of 
fruit when it is placed in the storehouse. His 
superintendent watches the picking of his 
fruit with the greatest, care: every fruit is 
handled as carefully as are eggs. Fruit 
placed iu the storehouse bruised and in uneven 
condition as to ripeness will never keep. 
Benjamin G. Smith, said that shippers be¬ 
gin gathering apples two or three weeks before 
it is generally done. * 
E. W. Wood agreed with Mr. Manning that 
the warm autumn weather is a critical time 
in the keeping of fruit. He generally picks 
his Anjou pears about the 10th of October, 
and last year they ripened about the end of 
that mouth, aud ho had to send them to mar¬ 
ket. Every year apples are found under 
leaves perfectly sound iu the Spring. Ho 
thought those who store apples like to have 
the temperature as low as 80 c and from that 
to 28 g . Every year they get. caught and 
frozen, but this is not considered an injury if 
the fruit is not wanted for immediate use. 
His father had stored apples in the cellar aud 
found them frozen, but he allowed them to 
thaw without moving and they came out in 
perfect condition. They must, not be shaken 
while frozen. He thought that houses where 
ice is used are not apt to be damp from the 
waste of the ice. In the cold storage house on 
North Street, Boston, which is'five stories 
high anil 150 feet deep, with an engine iu the 
attic, and kept cool by the use of chemicals, it 
is so dry that matches laid anywhere will light 
with perfect ease, and he was under the im¬ 
pression that fruit comes out of such a house 
with better flavor than from an ice house. 
Cold storage is a great convenience to fruit 
growers; Bartlett or other pears can be stored 
when there is a surplus, aud put on th > mar¬ 
ket as it will bear them. The Vicar is the 
only kind that, was carried through to the 
first of February this year. 
Mr. Flint said t hat he once kept nine or ten 
barrels of apples on the trees till the flth of 
November, when his neighboi-s thought they 
were spoiled, but he piled them up ou the 
north side of a building until Christmas, and 
then put them in the stable and covered them 
with straw, and they kept finely. 
Mr. Wood said that he once picked some 
Roxbury Russet apples very carefully and 
laid them on the ground until they were cov¬ 
ered with a foot, of snow ; they were after¬ 
wards packed in barrels in coal ashes and 
opened the middle of June, when they were 
nearlv perfeet — plump, with the flesh crisp 
and juicy, and of fine flavor when others had 
lost their flavor. The air was excluded from 
them and the temperature was even. 
Value of Wood Ashes. —Dr. R. C. Kedzie, 
of Michigan, issues a valuable bulletin on the 
value of ashes as a manure. Many of the 
analyses of ashes heretofore given have been 
almost too scientific to be of practical value. 
All foreign substances were carefully excluded 
from the specimens examined. As found on 
the farm, ashes always contain more or less 
sand or earthy materials. It is interesting for 
scientists to note the difference in composition 
of the ash of the body wood as compared with 
that of the branches of the same tree: but 
when body, limbs, bark and all are reduced in 
the stove or furnace, with the addition of 
much dirt, these 'nice calculations are apt to 
fail. 
When we consider how large an amount of 
vegetable matter is represented by a small am¬ 
ount of ash. the value of wood ashes for manure 
becomes evident. Thus only 10 pounds of ash 
remain from the combustion of a cord of hard 
wood, and only five pounds from a cord of 
soft. wood. One hundred pounds of ash repre¬ 
sent the mineral matter of 85 bushels of wheat, 
85 bushels of corn, or a ton of timothy hay. 
Eleven tons of gooseberries, grapes, black¬ 
berries, peaches or apples would contain 
only 100 pounds of ash. Seven tons of cher¬ 
ries, plums or raspberries contain only 100 
pounds of mineral matter. But small as is the 
amount of ash, it is still indispensable for the 
production of these crops, and must he present 
in the soil in available form before profitable 
cultivation is possible. Let it not be supposed 
that, the ash in all these crops is identical in 
composition. The ash of each class of plants 
has a composition peculiar to itself, and differ¬ 
ent in some respects from that of other classes; 
yet there is a certain similarity in the ash of 
all cultivated plants. When the ashes of veg¬ 
etable substances are served up for any plant 
by mixing them with the soil, such plant does 
not of necessity order every dish of the bill-of- 
fare. but selects such materials and in such 
quantites as are adapted to its wauts, aud 
leaves the balance for some future meal or 
some other guest. If any soil is naturally de¬ 
ficient. in any of the ash constituents, or has 
been impoverished by excessive cropping, the 
restoration of these materials in the form of 
wood ashes appears to be the natural and safe 
process because they contain all the minerals 
of vegetable growth. 
Discarding ashes of mineral coal as valueless 
for manure, the ashes of wood and of laud 
plants of every kind are of value for manure 
on every kind of soil which has been reduced 
by cropping: but the greatest, benefit is shown 
upon sandy and porous soils. On these “light 
soils” crops of every kind, but especially root 
crops and corn, will be benefited by a dressing 
of wood ashes. Fruit trees and fruit-bearing 
plants having a woody structure, will be ben¬ 
efited by wood ashes. Thirty or fifty bushels 
to the acre of fresh ashes will be a full dress¬ 
ing, and three or four times that amount of 
leached ashes may be applied with permanent 
benefit. 
Dr. Kedzie gives the values of ashes as they 
are ordinarily found upon the farm, as fol¬ 
lows: 
Hard wood ashes per ton.$20.00 
Leached 11 " “ 10.40 
Soft wood " “ “ 16.00 
Corn-cob “ 1 “ 50.00 
Tannery ** “ “ . 4.50 
Soft coal " “ “ .40 
Hard coal “ “ " .. .16 
Milk Fever. —A writer in the London Agri¬ 
cultural Gazette states he treated a cow suffer¬ 
ing from tlxis dread disease. On Thursday uight 
the cow calved, and all went well until Satur¬ 
day eveuing at six o’clock, when the premoni¬ 
tory symptoms appeared. He at once set to 
work as directed in Moore’s Veterinary 
Homoeopathy, and administered a dose of 
aeouittmi, 10 drops in a wine-glass of water; 
three hours after a similar dose of belladonna 
was given, and three hours later another dose 
of aconitum. At this time, half-past twelve 
o’clock, the pain began to subside. She then 
had, four hours later, a dose of nux vomica, 
10 drops in water as before, and during Sun¬ 
day at regular intervals she had three more 
doses of nux vomica, and a last, one on Mou- 
day morning. All Sunday she remained in a 
sleepy, helpless condition, but quite free from 
pain. On Monday morning she got up and 
had a small bran mash; iu the evening she 
took her food eagerly, and ou Tuesday was 
quite well. Her flow of milk stopped only 
during the hours of great pain. After read¬ 
ing of such “cures” the query involuntarily 
arises, “What would have happened had no 
medicine been administered?” 
Roots tn the Milk Ration.— Prof. L. B. 
Arnold, in the N. Y. Tribune, says that carrots 
make better-flavored milk and butter, and 
rather more of them, than mangels when 
equal weights are fed. Mangels are notorious 
for making thin and low-flavored, but not un¬ 
wholesome, milk, like that from brewers’ 
grains. They have a food value, as compared 
with carrots, as seven to nine, but mangels are 
raised with less labor, and will produce about 
50 per cent more weight to the acre than car¬ 
rots. about f>00 bushels of carrots and 000 of 
mangels being the usual cron for an acre of 
good ground, if good care be taken of them. 
As measured by analysis. 5V' pounds of car¬ 
rots. or seven pounds of mangels, would have 
a value equivalent to one pound of oats. Ow¬ 
ing to the quicker and more complete digestion 
and greater efficiency of green food than dry, 
something less than the weights above named, 
perhaps a pound less of each, would be as val¬ 
uable as a pound of oats. As a quart of oats 
weighs a pound, about IS pounds of carrots or 
24 nounds of mangels would he a fair exchange 
for four quarts of oats. In substituting roots 
for oats, it should be remembered that they dif¬ 
fer so much in eomnosition that one cannot fill 
the place of the other. Oats alone make an 
excellent milk-producing food, being well 
balanced as to flesh-forming and heat-oroduc- 
ing matters, while roots are much lacking in 
flesh-forming material. Something that will 
make more ftesh|than roots should be fed with 
them. Wheat bran and middlings would help 
them very much, or an equal weight of early- 
cut clover hay, or one-eighth of their weight 
of linseed, corionseed or pea meal. When 
fresh (not fermented) brewers’ grains are fed 
with roots in eaual weights, each serves to 
correct, the defects of the other, and the two 
make a much better milk than either would 
alone. 
Breeding Heifers. —In deciding the age at 
which heifers should be put to the bull, the 
American Dairyman savs that it is well to re¬ 
member that no two heifers are exactly alike, 
and rarely will rhe same set of rules apply 
equally and justly to both. Some are nearly 
double the size of others at the same age, while 
it often hapjiens that the large ones are not so 
well matured as manv that are smaller. A 
large, weedy, long-legged heifer may be in¬ 
jured permanently if made to produce a calf 
before she is two years old. while another and 
much smaller, but more closely-knit heifer will 
support the maternal duties with perfect ease 
at 18 months of age. So it is with breeds. 
The small breeds, such as Jerseys and Ayr- 
shires. may lie safely bred much sooner than 
heifers of the larger breeds, such as Holsteins 
and all the lieef breeds. The point is to do 
this thing with some respect to surrounding 
circumstances and have no cast-iron rules 
about it, such as breeding all the females at 
15 months of age or at any stated age, but 
take them when properly matured and ready 
to bear the burdens that may be put upon 
them. 
TRIPE INWARDNESS. 
What an advantage it would be to farmers, 
says the Analyst, if townspeople could be in¬ 
duced to take more milk and less tea, coffee 
or beer; and what an advantage to the towns¬ 
people also. Few people will be inclined to 
argue that auy one of the three beverages 
named contains a tithe of the nourishment 
that milk does. "Why, then, in the face of 
this admission, is good, wholesome milk sold 
at a quarter of the price that any of the others 
are?. 
Why don’t people drinkmilk? Why, be¬ 
cause they are iu part ignorant of its value 
and in part afraid of it. The ignorance is in¬ 
excusable; the fear is equally so. Numerous 
outbreaks of fever have without doubt been 
traced to contaminated milk, and in some 
cases so clearly as to leave no doubt that milk 
is capable, when contaminated, of conveying 
such diseases. Some few deaths have been 
caused thereby, and consequently many peo- 
have given up the use of milk as a beverage. 
But how many has John Barleycorn slain? 
His victims mav lie counted by thousands an¬ 
nually. Aud the abuse of the social cup of 
tea has ruined many a constitution. But well 
known though these facts are, they have not 
led, as might have been expected, to an in¬ 
creased use of milk, because, as has been al¬ 
ready stated, so many view it with suspicion. 
Prof. E. W, Stewart says, in the Coun¬ 
try Gentlemen, that, there is not much difficul¬ 
ty in teaching calves to take skim-milk. He 
would moisten ground feed with a little sweet 
skim milk. The calves will eat the ground 
feed aftei mincing a little, and get the taste of 
the milk. Next time make it a little more 
moist with milk. Proceed in this way for a 
