STORING AND PRESERVING VEGE TABLES, FRUIT, NUTS, AND HERBS Conditions that cause vegetables to decay are moisture and heat, or fre quent and extreme changes of tem perature, as alternate freezing and thawing. These conditions are also favorable to the attacks of insects. Cold storage in a dry vault, with a temperature near or below the freez ing point, is, of course, the best method. Cooperative cold storage plants, both large and small, the bene fits of which may be shared by a group of neighbors or an entire com munity, are likely in time to come to be very. numerous. But if cold stor age is out of the question, a cool, dry place, where the temperature is likely to be as even as possible, should be sought for most vegetables.
Vegetable Pits.—To preserve root crops—as beets, turnips, and par snips, also cabbages—dig a trench on the north side of a sandy slope or ridge where the drainage is as per fect as possible, so that after a storm no water will stand in the trench. Dig a trench two or three feet deep about the same in width, and any desired length. Pack the vegetables carefully in this. Pile them up in a pyramid like the ridge of tbe roof of a house. Cover with a layer about a foot thick of meadow bay or straw and throw enough earth lightly over the straw to keep it in place. After the first frosts in the fall cover with a layer of earth 5 or 6 inches thick, and in the latter part of November or about the 1st of December, cover solidly with earth to the depth of a foot or more. Remove the vegetables from one cnd as required for use and cover the opening with hay or straw and keep it in place with boards, or shovel snow over it.
Ventilate these pits by means of 6-inch tile drains or square boxes of 6-inch boards nailed together. Insert these ventilators at intervals of 25 or 50 feet in large pits and plug the opening with loose straw to keep out the frost. Otherwise there is danger of decay from moisture in the event of an early thaw.
Or pull root crops, as turnips, beets, and the like on a hot, dry day and let them lie in the sun until all dirt can be shaken from the roots.
Twist off the tops, leaving the tap root on. Pack them in clean, dry barrels or bins and fill with fine dry sand or road dust, shaking it down around them until the box or barrel is full. Root crops should not be packed on the floors of cellars, as dampness is likely to cause them to decay and furnish breeding places for bacteria that cause filth diseases.
To Keep Celery.—In the latter part of October dig a trench 18 inches deep and 12 to 15 inches wide on a dry, well-drained ridge. Loosen the earth about the roots of the celery and draw out the stalks without shaking off the soil that adheres to them. Stand them upright close together in the trench inclining slightly toward the middle, and draw the earth around them up to the tips. Cover with a thick layer of leaves, straw, or meadow hay, put a board across the top and weight with stones or otherwise. If there is any danger of standing water from rains or melt ing snow, in winter, dig a ditch deeper than the celery trench for drainage.
Vegetable Cellar. — To preserve small quantities of vegetables for do mestic use, sink a half hogshead, cask, or large dry-goods box about two thirds of its depth into the ground and slope the earth around it on ail sides to the top. Knock the bottom out, and line the space with loose brick laid on the earth side by side or with a layer of loose stone. Fit it with a water-tight cover coming down over the edge.
Pack in this such vegetables as cab bage, celery, beets, turnips, etc. They will keep fresh all winter.
When cold weather comes on, throw over the top a large bag of burlap or potato sacking made like a mattress • and filled loosely with hay or straw. This can readily be removed to allow access and replaced after required vegetables have been taken out for use.
To Store Onions.—Pull the onions and let them lie in the field until the tops are withered. Spread them un der cover on an open floor or on slats until they are bone dry.