The system enables the cultivators to keep their grapes much later
than of old, and thus to add considerably to their revenue. A small
room in M. Charmeaux's house illustrates to a nicety the fact that
a similar one in most houses may be made to answer the purposes of
keeping grapes. It has no windows, and scarcely any means of
ventilation. The rest of the house is heated by hot air 5 but while
there are openings in the floor of the passages and rooms generally
to admit this, there are none in the room devoted to grapes. Thus
it is clear that the ordinary temperature of a well-constructed house
will present suitable conditions for the long preservation of grapes,
in any small room that may be devoted to that purpose. The
system was attractive enough when it was considered necessary to
construct a room specially to carry it out 3 it is much more so now
when it has been proven that not only is it not necessary to take
any special means to warm or ventilate the structure, but that the
grapes keep very much better without such being taken.
At a recent meeting of the Royal Horticultural Society, Mr.
Whittaker, of Crewe Hall Gardens, exhibited a bunch of grapes
kept somewhat after this fashion 5 but as he had not seen the plan in
execution, nor the figure of it given in this book, the experiment
was not carried out so simply as it may be. However, the grapes
had been kept a considerable time, and there was no reason to
suppose that their flavour was inferior in any noticeable degree.
