is
said, keep a great while, as till July; and pears until April, and in
some sorts till June. It is not improbable but that many other sorts of
fruit might be stored and preserved in somewhat the same way. Vegetables
of the cauliflower kind have been stored and kept well through a great
part of the winter, by putting them, when in full head, on a dry day,
into pits about eighteen inches in depth, and much the same breadth, in
a perfectly dry soil, with the stalks and leaves to them, the latter
being carefully doubled over and lapped round the heads, instead of
hanging them up in sheds or other places, as is the usual practice in
preserving them. In performing the work, it is begun at one end of the
pits, laying the heads in with the root-stalks uppermost, so as that the
former may incline downwards, the roots of the one layer covering the
tops or heads of the other, until the whole is completed. The pits are
then to be closely covered up with the earth into a sort of ridge, and
beaten quite smooth with the back of the spade, in order that the
rain-water may be fully thrown off. Fine cauliflowers have been thus
stored and kept for the occasional supply of the table until the middle
of the following January. For storing and preserving different kinds of
roots for common summer use, until the coming in or return of the
natural crops, the following method has likewise been proposed. As the
ice in ice-houses has commonly subsided some feet, as four, five, or
more, by the beginning of the spring, it is proposed to deposit in the
rooms or vacancies so left empty, the roots that are to be preserved. As
soon as any openings in the places have been well stuffed with straw,
and the surfaces of the ice covered with the sort of material,
case-boxes, dry ware, casks, baskets, or any other such vessels, are to
be placed upon it, which are then to be filled with the roots, such as
turnips, carrots, beets, celery, potatoes in particular, and some
others. In cases where there are not ice-houses, vegetation may be
greatly retarded, and the roots preserved by storing them in deep
vaulted cellars, caves, coal-pits, mines, or in any place seated deep in
the earth. Potatoes have also been well stored and preserved, it is
said, by earthing them in small parcels, as about two bolls each, heaped
up, and covered in the usual way with straw and earth; which are turned
over into other pits in the early spring, first rubbing off all the
sprouts or