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Lyttelton Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1631, 8 March 1866, Page 2

Storing Fruit —The essentials of a fruit room are—first, a low and equable temperature ; secondly, exclusion of air and light; and thirdly, free from frost and damp. Warmth tends to ripening, causing fruits that are capable of long keeping to be fit for use days, even weeks, earlier than they would be if kept in a low temperature ; and this early maturity of the fruit is had at the expense of its juiciness and flavour. When the temperature is variable, it acts prejudicially on the keeping of the fruit, by at one time tending to ripen, and at another to a retarding of that process. A variable temperature is a most prolific source of fruit not keeping, and it is destructive of every good quality of the fruit. The fruit very often decays at the core before it is fully ripe, and sometimes rots, and is seldom melting and delicious, but mealy and flavourless. The exclusion of nir acts as a preservative, for the oxygen of the air is needed for the elaboration of saccharine matter ; but as fruit rooms are for the preservation of fruit, that which tends to ripening should be carefully excluded, of which air and light are the next in importance to warmth. Freedom from frost is very important in the keeping of fruit, for the cells of the fruit are ruptured by frost, and their juices then speedily pass from fermentation to putrefaction on the fruit thawing. Damp is no great evil in itself, and does not necessarily lead to decay unless accompanied by warmth and the presence of air. But inasmuch as it tends to and hastens decay, damp should be avoided ; but even slight damp is better than dryness with warmth, and presence of light and atmospheric air—for the presence of these is indispensable for the ripening of fruit, and frequently converts the long-keeping into short and juicy fruit.