This section is from the book "The Gardener's Monthly And Horticulturist V28", by Thomas Meehan. See also: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long.
Col. Wilder gave recently an address before the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and concludes that the conditions of success may be briefly stated as follows : The perfect control of temperature, light and moisture. All experience shows that these conditions must be complied with or success cannot be attained; hence these apartments must be cool, and constructed so as to exclude at pleasure the external atmosphere, which starts fermentation. After many years of experience, both with and without ice, I have adopted a house built in a cool, shady aspect, with the door on the north, and with a thoroughly drained and cemented cellar, with small, double windows, which may be opened or closed at pleasure. In this way I am enabled to keep my late fall and winter pears until February or March in good condition. Apples may be kept at a lower temperature than pears - say 340 to 400.
 
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