KEEPING OF APPLES. 27 



dant that year, and all the fruit-growers in the vicinity, with 

 the exception of the one referred to, kept the worms from 

 injuring their trees by putting printer's ink around them. 

 This man put nothing on his trees, so that the worms had 

 full play. The consequence was, he had no fruit that year, 

 while his neighbors had an abundance. The next year he 

 put ink on his trees, and kept the canker-worm down : the 

 trees produced a large crop of fruit, and have borne the odd 

 year ever since. 



Apples, when first gathered, should not be placed in the 

 cellar immediately, but kept in as cool a place as possible, 

 and not freeze. They can be put in barrels, in heaps under 

 the trees, or, if one has the room, in a building that can be 

 well ventilated ; spread on the floor from one foot to a foot 

 and a half in thickness : here they should be allowed to re- 

 main until they have done sweating, when they should be 

 barrelled, and kept cool until freezing weather approaches. 

 The barrels should now be headed up, taking care not to fill 

 so full that one will be obliged to press down to put the 

 head in, as it will bruise the top layer, and cause them to 

 decay, so that they will be worthless when opened in the 

 winter to be re-packed for the market. Put in a cool, dry 

 cellar: the nearer apples can be kept to freezing, and not 

 freeze, the better they will keep. Apples should never be 

 wiped when barrelling them for Avinter ; as it rubs off the oily 

 coating with which they are covered, that prevents and 

 keeps them from withering. If the fruit is wet, it should be 

 exposed to the sun or wind until dry, before barrelling. 



Of the insects which prey upon our apple-trees, — and 

 :here are many, some of which do a great amount of damage, 

 lestroying hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of fruit 

 annually, — I will only speak of the most destructive, begin- 

 ning with the apple-tree borer. This is a nocturnal insect. 

 The female deposits one egg in a place, upon the trunk of the 

 tree, near the ground. When the borer hatches, it feeds for a 

 time on the bark : as it grows older, it burrows deeper into 

 the tree, often to the heart, when it turns, and comes to the 

 surface, then re-enters again to undergo its transformation, 

 and comes out in the spring a perfect insect. The best way 

 to destroy this borer is to watch the trunk of the trees, and, 

 if castings resembling sawdust are seen about the trunk, to 



