2192. The fruit-room may be connected with the seed-room. This ought to be well ventilated; for which purpose, like the three other rooms, it ought to have a small fireplace. The fruit-room was formerly a mere loft, where fruits were kept on the floor in common with onions, with no proper means of separation, or arrangement for systematic consumption. Now, however, it is regularly fitted up, either with shelves of latticework, on which to place sieves of different sorts of fruit; or with close shelves, for jars, boxes, &c., according to the various modes adopted of preserving them. The room may be of any form; but one long and narrow (fig. 658. a a) is generally best adapted for ventilation and heating, or drying, when necessary, by a flue. The system of shelves (b) may be placed along one side, and may be raised to the height of 6 ft. or more (c c), according to the number wanted. These shelves are formed of open work (d d), on which to place square sieves of fruit, each of which should be numbered, and a table or slate (e), containing the corresponding numbers, may be hung up in the room, and opposite each number should be a space for noting down daily the number taken out of each sieve for use. From this table statements may be made from time to time of the quantity of fruit on hand for the use of the house-steward. (Maher, in Hort. Trans. vol. ii. p. 76.) Forsyth directs that all the floors or shelves on which apples are to be kept or sweated, should be made of white deal, as, when red deal is made use of for these purposes, it is liable to give a disagreeable resinous taste to the fruit, and spoil its flavour: when white deal cannot be procured, he advises covering the shelves with canvas. Those sorts of fruit which keep longest are generally best preserved in jars, excluded from the air, and placed in cold dry situations, not under 32ﾦ nor above 40ﾦ.
