464 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



got "witbin forty rods of an orchard where I had bought fruit and given the 

 proper instructions, I heard a big noise. On getting nearer I saw a man with 

 a big tin pail pouring the apples from the top into the bottom of the barrel; 

 another was pitching them as far as he could into a bushel basket. Some 

 gather them carefully in baskets, take them by hand out of the baskets and 

 put them carefully away. Even an ordinary apple handled in that way will 

 keep and bring a large price in the spring. 



Mr. Avery. — Many have an idea that apples sweat in the barrel, but this is a 

 mistake. True, apples accumulate condensed moisture, but this is for much the 

 same philosophical reason that drops of moisture collect on a glass of cold 

 water brought into a warm room. If the atmosphere of the cellar is cooler 

 than the exterior air apples will not '"'sweat." 



Mr. Parmelee. — Don't pick in rainy weather, nor head them up on a very 

 cold day. Apples should go into the cellar at about the temperature of the 

 cellar. 



Mr. Tracy. — Bright, mild weather is undoubtedly the best for this work. 



Mr. Parmelee, — Apples picked in damp weather, or in the snow, and with 

 leaves thrown in, won't keep. We can just as well get ten dollars per barrel 

 for our best apples as not if we handle them properly. There should not be a 

 dent in them. You can keep Snow apples and other tender skinned varieties 

 Tery much longer by this treatment. 



Mr. Drew. — Fruit should be gathered in October, but if you have an orchard 

 of jBfty acres, where are you to get help to pick them so carefully? 



ITr. Ladd. — One half the apples gathered in this way are worth more than 

 don Me the quantity gathered carelessly. 



C ub adjourned to Friday evening, November 27, when the annual election, 

 of officers takes place. 



THE VALUE OF ROOT CROPS. 



Old Mission, Dec. 7, 1874. 



Club met on the evening of this da}', the new president, Benj. Montague, 

 presiding, and Mr. George L. Eoberts at the secretary's table. 



Mr. Marshall. — We don't appreciate the value of our soil and climate for 

 roots. Two tons of hay and one hundred bushels of turnips are worth more 

 than three tons of hay, with the additional advantage that animals thus fed 

 require less water. I plow early and manure thoroughly, planting somewhat 

 less than three feet between rows, and thinning out to about ten inches in the. 

 row. I grew this year on one acre 600 bushels of yellow ruta-bagas. The 

 actual cost of this crop, including every item of expense, together with the 

 interest on the land at $40 per acre, is $37 75, or about six and one-third 

 cents per hushel. Its value at fifteen cents per bushel, $90, leaving a clear 

 profit of $52 25 per acre. 



Mr. Parmelee. — I have always had fine crops of ruta-bagas in dry seasons. 

 After plowing the ground, have taker, off one blade of shovel plow, run through 

 with the other, planted my seed in this drill, and had a good yield. One crop 

 put in this way, which we were unable to dig, went through the winter Avell. 



