I 
January 9.J 
THE COTTAGE GARDENER. 
225 
general qualities of many of our most valuable fruits. 
Having offered these hints in a collateral way, we will 
proceed to the general functions of dryness and mois- 
j ture, heat and cold, as affecting the main body of our 
conserved fruits. 
It is well known that many apples keep longer if 
pitted after the manner of potatoes, than if exposed on the 
open shelves of the fruit-room. It is also equally well 
known that in such a situation, if prolonged beyond 
their ordinary time, they lose flavour—become earthy as 
it were. We have never tried our best pears that way, 
1 but doubtless the result would be the same. Here they 
are constantly damp, of course, and in addition the air 
j is excluded. On the contrary, on the open shelves of a 
dry up-stairs fruit-room, with liberal ventilation, they 
become shrivelled betimes; but instead of losing flavour 
such generally becomes, up to a certain period, more 
highly concentrated, although what is termed dry and 
! woolly, losing that smartness for which most fruits are 
‘ so much esteemed. 
It would appear, then, that where fruit of various 
kinds have to he housed in one room, a medium condi¬ 
tion, as to both air and moisture, is the best; and such, 
we believe, most experienced persons will agree to. We 
may, however, add here, that pears require a drier atmo¬ 
sphere than apples; and, indeed, if an error must he 
committed, by all means let it be on the dry side of the 
question. 
The following, we think, will be found safe principles 
to guide the inexperienced:— 
Site. —A somewhat low level, with a subsoil perfectly 
i dry, or rendered so. 
Aspect. —An easterly or northerly one; any point but 
: south or south-west. 
Frost. —The house rendered perfectly secure against 
l this. We would never have the general store-room sink 
below forty or rise above fifty degrees. 
Air. —The power of thorough ventilation when neces¬ 
sary, and equally the power of rendering it almost her¬ 
metically sealed. 
Light. —Windows to admit light, of course, for the 
sake of operations in the room; generally speaking, how¬ 
ever, a fruit-room cannot be kept too dark. 
We have here the main principles on which such ope¬ 
rations should be conducted. Let us look over them 
separately. 
1st. Site. —We have said low, because we feel assured 
; that by keeping the floor, if possible, even a little below 
| the ground level, less fluctuation of temperature will be 
■ experienced. Sooner, however, than be liable to much 
1 damp, we would go as much above the level as is neces¬ 
sary in order to avoid it. Concrete should be used for 
the flooring, and a portion of the foundation walls done 
i in cement, to prevent the transmission of damp upwards 
1 by capillary attraction. The rats and mice are great 
annoyances; the cement and concrete would keep them 
at arm’s length. A preventive drainage may, by all 
means, be applied also round the exterior, if the locality 
be damp. 
2nd. Aspect. —We have said easterly or northerly, 
merely because the winds are generally drier from such 
quarters; coolness in summer, too, is of course a great 
consideration. 
3rd. Frost. — To create an artificial warmth, and 
merely to keep out the cold, or rather to procure as 
much as possible, the amount of warmth which the 
interior possesses, are two very different affairs. With 
j regard to artifical heat, we will offer our opinion in the 
sequel; and as to preservation of the natural interior 
warmth in winter, such is best effected by double walls, 
j possessing a cavity of some three inches in width. The 
! power of what are termed hollow walls, as non-con¬ 
ductors of heat, is well known, in these days, to be very 
j considerable. Neither can exterior damps be readily 
transmitted ; and, moreover, such are cooler in summer: 
for the sluggish agency of such walls in transmitting 
heat is as much in keeping out summer heats as the 
colds of winter. If the roof is an exterior one, it 
should either be double, or other means taken to keep 
out the summer heat. 
4th. Air. — Of course a very liberal ventilation is 
necessary when much fruit is housed in the autumn. 
There should, therefore, be a special provision for both 
the egress of moisture, and for the ingress of fresh and 
dry air. The higher the level at which the latter enters, 
the brisker will, in general, be the circulation. 
5th. Light. — Most good practitioners agree in the 
necessity of excluding light as much as possible. Scien¬ 
tific men say, that the surface skin of fruits perspires 
exactly as the surface of leaves; and that light is a 
prime agent in inducing such perspiration: hence, 
heat and light are conjoint causes of' shrivelling. The 
windows or other apertures, therefore, must be provided 
with close fitting shutters, and these should be double, 
even as the walls. During severe weather, mats enclos¬ 
ing hay may be fastened over the exterior. 
And now, as to artificial heat, we do think, that every 
good general fruit store-room should open into a small 
closet, which should be so fitted up as to produce an 
artificial warmth when necessary. If adjoining a mush¬ 
room house on the one side, or any place where a surplus 
of heat was available, such would be readily accom¬ 
plished without extra expense in fuel. Some persons 
have advocated the placing piping to convey heat inside 
the cavity of the exterior walls: this sounds somewhat 
philosophical, inasmuch as in such a situation, with a’ 
slight amount of controllable ventilation, the non-con¬ 
ducting cavities might be kept dry and warm. The 
situation of pipes or other apparatus, however, should 
depend on the arrangement made for the fruit; the 
heating source, pipes, &c., being as far removed from 
them as possible, and certainly not immediately beneath 
them. Such a little closet might possess merely a stand 
for drawers down the centre; which stand shotdd be an 
exact counterpart of a stand in the centre of the general 
store-room; and the best pears, or other tender fruits, 
being placed in parcels in the general store, might be 
removed in portions to this ripening room, a whole 
drawer at once, without moving the fruit. 
R. Errington. 
THE FLOWER-GARDEN. 
Garden Walks—Concrete. —The derivation of this 
word has been misapprehended by some. Those who 
refer it to Concretus , or to Concresco, are not on the 
right scent; it is made up of two Latin words, con, 
meaning together, and creta, chalk, or lime; that is, 
things put together by means of chalk or lime. Our 
new walks and roads, therefore, go by the name of 
concrete walks, or concrete roads. I have, for the last 
seven years, written more private letters about concrete 
than I can enumerate; for during this time, it was a 
subject of private conversation and comment, whenever 
two or three of us met together—and once or twice 
annually, a whole committee of gardeners met together 
on Turnham Green, and washed down tlieir bread and 
cheese with a hearty dose of some kind of concrete or 
other; and yet without swallowing almost all the scientific 
ideas each of us had already imbibed on the philosophy 
of cultivation, none of us dared to let the cat out of the 
bag, for fear of being thought singular, or out of the 
fashion of the dag —that greatest tyrant on earth. 
It wili be seen by my last two letters, that I have 
broken the ice in one of the departments of concrete 
making, and I have used it in every other department 
throughout the garden. I have full experience on its 
