NATURE'S COLD STORAGE

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXIII, 23 July 1929, Page 2

NATURE'S COLD STORAGE

KEEPS CHINESE PERSIMMON CROP ORIENT'S STAPLE FRUIT A cold storage plant made of straw, grass and stems occupies a small river valley about fifty miles north-west of Pekin, China, lor miles and miles it stretches along the sandy, gravelly river bottom, appearing as nothing more than an endless series of matting ridges. Here in the autumn as many as 2600 tons of persimmons are laid away, and from here the crop Hows out in a'steady stream through tlio year. The Chinese do not live on rice alone, and of the other items of their diet the persimmon is one of the most important. It is the most commonly used staple trait in the Orient, its place being comparable to that of the apple m the United States. For centuries it has been cultivated anti eaten there; and even in the depths of winter it may be had in abundance, in good condition'and of excellent quality, on tiie streets of Pekin, thanks to the way that has been devised to make Nature act as a preserver. Practically the entire winter's supply of persimmon/5 for China is grown'near Pekin, is stored in beds by tli-e million, along the terraced river banks, in the orchards alojig the streams, in village compounds and on river bottoms without any protection except a little litter. The storage places are picked for their ,convenience to the orchards where the fruit is grown and their accessibility to donkey and camel trains and other means of transportation to market. Growers sometimes pool their interests and harvest, store and market the fruit co-operatively, or a middleman may lease the storage grounds and purchase the fruit from the farmers. At each storage grounds a watchman is in attendance with a dog and a Jong-handled spear to ward off'intruders. The beds are usually twelve feet wide. and of any length desired. Four trenches are dug, the dirt being piled up on the sides. They arc of equal width and about twelve inches deep; then a bed of kaoliang stems (a variety of sorghum) is laid across the ridges'. The open spaces are left for drainage in case of rain or snow and for circulation oif air to reduce, temperatures and insure even freezing.