1903 The still-room by C. Roundell

Storing of Fruit and Herbs

fruit shall not touch the wooden shelves.

In the

centre of the fruit-house a narrow table with a raised edge made of lengths of matchboard, set on trestles, is useful to set up exhibition collections or to show special samples. Baskets of fruit can be set under this for early use. Floor, — The best possible floor is the natural earth^ — paved surfaces are apt to become too dry. The latest sorts should be stored on the lowest shelf. Names. — Provide slips of zinc 4 inches long, turn up one end i inch, at an angle of 45°, and then slit this angle three times, and bend it so that it will hold a neat card ; the other end can be slipped under the straw. From their fruit-house, constructed on these lines, Messrs. Bunyard have put up 80 dishes of fresh clean apples at the Temple Shows at the end of May. Pears. — If pears constitute the bulk of the store, the fruit-house should be rather drier and rather warmer than in the case of apples. In either case, the winter temperature should not fall below 40° F., and the summer temperature should not rise above F. A very convenient method of storing apples and pears is in flat trays, such as those known as Orr's, of which Mr. White, of Bedford, holds the patent The fruit is placed direct in these as picked from the tree, and the trays are carried to the fruit- house as fast as they are filled. 61 rights.