TRANSACTIONS OF HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF XOliTHERN ILI,. 



275 



Apples should be picked as soon as the seeds turn brown, as a 

 general rule (and I know of no better one), as this is an indication that 

 the office work of the parent tree is accomplished. 



Apples should be gathered, if possible, when dry and cool, or not 

 very warm, and put immediately into barrels, and if dry and cool, headed 

 up as nearly air-tight as practicable, and not exposed to the sun or wet 

 weather afterward — keeping as cool and even in temperature as possible 

 without severely freezing. When ready for marketing, if a long time 

 gathered, the barrels may be opened, the fruit carefully examined, all 

 specked or rotting ones thrown out, rebarreling, pressing down well in the 

 barrel. On such packages you may proudly stamp your name with the 

 assurance of a compensating price and a future demand for fruit of the 

 same brand. 



S. M. Slade, from same committee, reported : 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 



In the discussion of this question of the best mode of gathering and 

 keeping apples, I know the Society will excuse me for saying but little, 

 from the fact that other members of the committee present have a much 

 larger experience and are far more able to properly handle the subject 

 than myself. 



The most I hope or desire to do, therefore, is to barely open up the 

 subject with a few crude thoughts, leaving it for my compeers to enter- 

 tain you as they are abundantly able to do, by giving you all the im- 

 portant information needed upon the subject. The first point, then, is 

 to pick your apples from the tree ; and this can hardly be done too early. 

 A very little neglect in this vicinity after the sound apples commence to 

 drop will find the Stannards, the Jonathans and some others mostly upon 

 the ground. If you cannot pick all when you should, use discretion by 

 picking those most likely to drop first. Of course the more carefully 

 you can pick the better, and if you cannot use all the care required in 

 picking up and packing eggs, do not forget to use all the care you can. 

 After gathering I consider it of prime importance that they be stored 

 somewhere, or if nothing better offers lay in piles on the ground for 

 some time before going into the cellar. The cooler the cellar can be 

 kept without freezing the better for the fruit. In my own experience 

 I have found but little difference between deep and shallow receptacles, so 

 far as the keeping of the fruit is concerned ; but where apples are to be 

 looked over occasionally, as is often necessary to be done, shallow 

 receptacles are certainly a great convenience. 



It is quite important that some varieties be barreled or closely con- 

 fined from the air, of which, perhaps, the russets are the most notable. 

 Whether it can be made to pay or is profitable to resort to any of the 

 various methods to try to preserve the apple fresh and crisp as it comes 

 from the tree to any great extent I am not sure ; but that we may have a 

 few of this character lasting through the season, which the family will 

 highly appreciate, and with no expense except the amount of labor ex- 

 pended, there is no doubt. 



