ORCHARDS AND FRUIT CULTURE. 77 



I cannot help saying a word about harvesting. Two winters 

 ago, in passing from my place to Portland, I was stopping at a 

 tavern, and a man brought along some Porter apples, as he called 

 them, to sell. The tavern keeper said he thought it was out of 

 season, and asked me to see if they were Porters. I examined 

 the apples, and they looked like Porters, they tasted like Porters, 

 and they were Porters. I asked the man how he kept them so late, 

 and he said simply by careful handling. He picked each one with 

 his own hands, and they were not bruised in the least. One reason 

 why Western fruit brought into this State usually brings a good 

 price is careful handling, so that it is not bruised. Now, in order 

 to pick apples without bruising, the basket should be lined. Take 

 a half bushel basket, with a hook, so that you can hang it up in 

 the tree within reach ; instruct your men to lay the apples into 

 the basket, not drop them an inch. Just as sure as an apple is 

 dropped, if it is not more thau one or two inches, it will be bruised. 

 The bruise may be slight, but it is a bruise. Take the Yellow Bell- 

 flower, for instance; the skin is almost white, and a very little 

 bruise will suffice to injure it. I never had a man yet who could 

 bring in a half bushel of Bellflower apples without showing that 

 he had dropped them. The utmost care is required in handling 

 all the way through. My own practice is, to have them gathered 

 into half bushel baskets, set in a wagon, and taken to the storing 

 house, and there they are laid carefully into the barrel. 



In regard to packing into barrels, we farmers of Cumberland 

 and Oxford, and all about, are verily in fault. We send our apples 

 to market in poor barrels. We would not buy a barrel of flour in 

 such a package ; you would say that the flour could not be good 

 packed in such a miserable looking barrel. In the first place, you 

 should have good barrels, and they ought to be uniform. If you 

 can get flat-hooped barrels, let all the hoops be flat, and not part 

 flat and part round. Let the outside of the barrel be clean, of 

 course, but the inside must be thoroughly clean ; thoroughly wash 

 every barrel, and have them completely dry before the fruit is put 

 in. We send too many poor apples to market — too many wormy 

 apples — too many small apples ; and we must expect the price to 

 be low as long as we put up so poor fruit. Better fruit will com- 

 mand a better price; good fruit is always in demand. Infilling 

 a barrel, it should be frequently rocked, not violently, so as to 

 bruise the fruit, but gently, so that every apple will take its place. 

 Fill the barrel a little more than full, about up to the top of the 



