THE RURAb NEW-YORKER 
180 
1913. 
A FRUIT CELLAR IN SWITZERLAND, 
A’isiting 1 my home town in Switzerland on 
my trip abroad recently, I was told of a 
fruit farmer who owned and conducted a 
fruit farm four miles west of my home 
village. I was urged to go and see him 
for several reasons, first because he had 
lived in America 20 years (though he was 
a native born and raised where his fruit 
farm is located), second because he was 
known to be a “crank”—in fact his son 
had him before a probate court attempting 
to have him adjudged insane. The judge 
after a fair trial remarked that it was to 
be regretted and to be considered a loss, 
that there were not at least a few more 
insane men in Switzerland afflicted with 
the same form of lunacy as this man. Of 
course, hearing all this, it was only natural 
that I wanted to see this lunatic and his 
fruit farm, especially when I was told 
that he was perfectly harmless. 
An electric railway ran in front of this 
farm, “Fruit Farm Oberweisen, Christian 
Stamm, Owner,” was the sign I read when 
1 alighted from the car. A beautiful house 
enclosed with a beautiful iron fence painted 
green, a large gate, with a sign, “Beware 
of the dogs” immediately attracted my 
attention. To be candid I was a little tim¬ 
id entering the gate; you know when you 
are first told that, to put it mildly, a 
crank lives there, and you see a warning, 
“Beware of the dogs,” it is only prudent 
to go slow. Fumbling a little with the catch 
of the gate, attracted the attention of the 
owner, who happened to be at the house. 
He came out, and with a dark frown on 
his countenance asked what my errand was 
in his Swiss-German dialect. I started to 
tell him in good American English, intro¬ 
ducing myself as a native of his neighbor¬ 
ing village, but not a citizen of the United 
States, on a visit “home.” You should 
have seen that dark cloud disappear and 
a smile that lit up his whole countenance 
spread all over him; that language that he 
bad learned in America and dearly loved 
did it all. He handed over to me, as it 
were, the keys of the whole place in trying 
to make me welcome. Now before telling 
you about the fruit farm and cellar a word 
about the man himself is appropriate. Mr. 
Christian Stamm was born in Oberweisen, 
Switzerland; when 20 years old he emi¬ 
grated to the United States and settled near 
Syracuse, N. Y. He remained in the same 
State 20 years in different localities, 
learned a good deal about growing fruit, 
but that disease, known as homesickness 
which natives of Switzerland suffer from, 
it is said, more acutely than people of 
other nationalities suffer, attacked him, and 
he went back home, only to find that after 
a residence of 20 years in the United 
States, Switzerland was no longer the land 
he thought it was, and left again. This 
time, however, he went to Egypt, and re¬ 
mained 18 years, learning more and in a 
different way about fruit growing. Again 
he went back to dear old Switzerland this 
time to stay. 
His farm consists of about 20 acres of 
laud, 12 acres level land on the foot of a 
mountain, the other eight acres the south 
side of the mountain itself. This is cov¬ 
ered with a vineyard about two-thirds the 
way up; the top is crowned with a growth 
of pine and fir. The 12 acres are set out 
to apples and pears, and are now in bearing 
stage; the ground is as thoroughly tilled 
as my own or any other onion patch ; you 
could go over the whole orchard and not 
find enough weeds to fi 11 your vest pocket. 
He keeps the ground constantly stirred, 
this he claims he learned in Egypt. It 
is possible that our orchardists did not 
practice as they do now this method of 
culture when he worked in New York State. 
Another thing of note ijbout this fruit farm 
is the 250 starling houses scattered all 
over the farm ; each house is built for four 
families. He got acquainted with the hab¬ 
its of this bira in Egypt, its native place; 
he claims he nas never yet found it neces¬ 
sary to spray, as the birds have kept his 
orchard free from all insect pests. The 
houses are of sheet steel painted red on 
iron posts about eight feet above ground. 
The fruit cellar, however, is the attraction 
that brings students from all over Europe 
to see it. It has a continent-wide fame, 
and yet everything seems simple enough. 
A brewery some years ago had blasted a 
cave into this mountain, something like the 
many railroad tunnels that are piercing the 
mountains of Switzerland. This tunnel, 
about 14 feet wide, 12 feet high, starts 
from the north side and runs into it, to the 
east between 300 and 400 feet. Here they 
struck a stream of water bubbling out of a 
crevice that is simply ice cold. Instead of 
going further east they went 100 feet south 
and 200 feet north, forming a cave in the 
shape of the letter T. For some reason or 
other the brewery project failed, the firm 
went into bankruptcy (for this the Hope 
Farm man isn’t a bit sorry), and Mr. 
Stamm bought the cave. He immediately 
had the walls plastered with cement mor¬ 
tar, cut a channel both north and south 
so that that cold water runs first south, 
then north, and finally leaves the cellar at 
the entrance of the cave. Another move 
lie made is by drilling an air shaft up 
through the top of the mountain; under it 
he has an electric motor and is enabled to 
pump fresh cool mountain air into every 
corner of this cave. At the entrance to 
this cave is a large packing room where 
fruit is prepared and sorted for storage. 
\r tl o°k w ith car goes all over the cave. 
Mr. Stamm showed me some apples in a 
• rate that had been in the cave nearly 2 1 /. 
years; they were sound, solid and hard, lie 
said; “i have the fruit merchant foul; 
if he wants my fruit he can have it at 
my own price; if he does not want it I 
leave the fruit here until he will want it.” 
. There is never any ice used; Mr. Stamm 
is enabled to keep up a temperature of 
seven degrees Celsius (about 44 degrees 
halirenheit), by the use of the air from the 
top of the mountain and the cold water 
from the spring. Next the moisture con¬ 
tent of the cave is 90 degrees hygrometer ; 
this he said by a number of years’ experi¬ 
ence he found correct. He said if the cave 
is drier than the above the fruit wilts, 
while on the other hand if it is moister 
it will rot. This he said was much more 
essential than keeping the fruit cold. 
In the cave is no wood of any kind; 
shelves are all of tile. The only wood that 
enters the cave is the box in which the 
fruit is packed. Every Fall before putting 
in the fruit he burns about two tons of 
sulphur and leaves the fumes for about a 
month before aerating. The cave is lit up 
with electric light, which he obtains from 
the street railway company. 
After investigating thoroughly I said: 
“Mr. Stamm, tell me; have I got the the¬ 
ory correct? It is not essential in order 
to keep the fruit to have a cave under a 
Swiss mountain, any cellar or storage room 
in which you can maintain seven degrees 
Celsius above 0 and 90 degrees hygrometer 
moisture content will keep the fruit?” 
He said, “You have got it in a nutshell 
like only an American can get it.” 
One more word about those dogs. In 
the sitting room was Mrs. Stamm and a 
large St. Bernard dog; when we started 
for the cave Mr. Stamm asked in such a 
kind gentle voice: “Are you going along, 
Marie?” but Mrs. Stamm never answered, 
to my surprise, but the dog whose name 
proved to be Marie, jumped up immediately 
and was very anxious to go along. After 
seeing those immense dogs, both male and 
female, that sign on the gate, “Beware of 
the dog,” was self-explanatory to me. 
Ohio. J. H. BOLLINGER. 
Storing Salsify and Parsnips. 
Will you give method of storing a small 
quantity of salsify and parsnips for family 
use in house vegetable cellar? About No¬ 
vember 1 I stored them in a barrel, putting 
in a layer of roots and sand alternately. 
Now the salsify seems to be growing. The 
cellar is quite removed from furnace room ; 
cistern is in same room and there is an 
outside window ; gravel floor is inclined to 
be damp. j. G . g. 
Rochester, N. Y. 
Root crops of all kinds require a tempera¬ 
ture of 40-45 degrees for successful and 
satisfactory Winter storage. This is es¬ 
pecially true of salsify and parsnips. Both 
are very hardy and when left standing in 
the ground where grown will withstand our 
coldest Winters without injury. Being so 
very hardy they will begin top growth in 
any quarters_where the temperature ranges 
from 45 to 50 degrees, especially if stored 
in earth or sand or placed on a damp 
floor. The outside pit is much better 
suited for the storage of these crops. The 
pit is dug out about three feet deep, and 
when only small lots are to be stored need 
not be over three feet wide, and can be 
made of any required length. When two 
kinds of roots only are to be stored and 
only in quantity sufficient for the use of 
an averaged size family, a pit six feet long 
by three feet wide by three feet deep will 
be large enough. It will be best to make 
a two-compartment pit; this can be done 
by leaving a wall of earth six inches thick 
standing in the center and crossways of 
the pit. The salsify can then be stored 
in one side and the parsnips in the other 
side. Pack the roots in up to within two 
or three inches of the ground level, cover 
the roots with soil up to the level of the 
ground, then cover the pit with straw or 
leaves to a depth of 15 to 18 inches, over 
which erect an A-shapcd frame covered 
with tar paper, securely battened down. 
This will keep out snow and rain, and 
make access to the pit easy at anytime of 
Winter. If straw or leaves are not avail¬ 
able for covering the roots, then they must 
be protected with earth. This should be 
about two feet deep and rounded so as to 
throw the water off. This way of keeping 
root crops of all kinds, with the excep¬ 
tion of potatoes, is much better than keep¬ 
ing them in a cellar or root house, as they 
will keep fresher, retaining their natural 
flavor longer and less of them will be lost 
by growth and decay, than when exposed 
to the air and changeable temperature of a 
cellar. k. ' 
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