We desire to store two or three thousand boxes of apples for three or
four months and propose to do it in this way: Make an excavation in dry
earth, putting at the bottom of the excavation straw. Upon this straw
place the apples, then dry straw over the apples, and upon the top of
this two or three feet of dry earth. Will it be a good plan to pour on
water from time to time over the top of this to keep the apples and all
wet, or should the apples be kept dry?

Putting down loose apples in a straw-lined pit would be very expensive.
It would invite decay by bruising the fruit, and the result would
probably be a worthless mixture of rotten fruit and straw. The fruit
should be stored in boxes or shallow trays to reduce pressure and
promote ventilation, and not in bins or large piles. Apples will keep
for a long time in good condition if the boxes are put in piles in the
shade, covered with straw, which should be slightly moistened from time
to time; but in that case there would not be such an accumulation of
moisture and there would be ventilation at all times. Apples should be
kept dry, but they will shrivel and become unmarketable unless the air
in which they are stored is kept reasonably moist. This is generally
accomplished by making apple houses with double walls and roof to
exclude heat and with an earth or concrete floor which can be sprinkled
from time to time with a hose.



Apple Root-grafts.