THE SECKETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 409 



though growing in a sort of waste corner, and the tree now' gives him as much 

 satisfaction as any on liis lot. Tliougli perhaps half of the fruit is stung by 

 the moth, and tlius becomes a little Mormy, the balance is good ; and by using 

 the injured ones first, he ''gets along." 



All these things are encouraging. A little more care in looking after the 

 trees, and a little judgment in caring for the fruit raised, would make a half- 

 dozen wxll-selected trees give fruit enough for some families for a whole season. 

 — Germantown TeUgrapli . 



EXPERIMENT IN KEEPING APPLES. 



I finished overhauling njy apples with the following result: Bellflowers put 

 up in paper, each one separately ; rotten, one peck per harrel; Vandevero Pip- 

 pin, one-half bushel put in barrels with layer of apples and layer of paper; 

 Orchard Sweets put in sawdust, one peck per bushel. Those in sawdust not 

 shrunk and more as when put up. I put up some on shelves which kept well; 

 poured some on the cellar iloor and they kept well. Now, after trying the 

 above plans I think the shelves preferable for the following reasons : First, 

 you can more easily pick out those beginning to rot, and by doing this prevent 

 others from rotting ; besides you can open a draught of air into your cellar when 

 it gets warm. I kept the llambo on my shelves sound to the middle of Febru- 

 ary. I don't think they could be kept so long in any other way. — Indiana 

 Farmer. 



AN APPLE CELLAR OR KEEPING ROOM. 



Many words and perhaps good ideas are given on the room or house in which 

 to keep fruit beyond its real period of maturity, and yet have it come before 

 the public as good as at its best. There are many kinds of fruits, and also many 

 varieties of each kind ; and the outer coverings, or skins as they are commonly 

 called, vary in their quality as preservative of the center. The Nyce fruit- 

 house was a wonder at one time, but when the writer ate pieces of the Baldwin 

 and Rhode Island Greening in May, and knew not what apple they came from, 

 he doubted the value of the fruit-house. From that time to the present almost 

 y^early do we have some " newly discovered" principle for the keeping of fruits. 

 I read them all, and believe what — I do believe. I remember a fruit-house, 

 room, or cellar, as you may call it, that I once knew. I will try to describe it, 

 and at the same time I assert here that I ate fruit from it with as much relish 

 ■jis gathered from the trees the same day in October, the same fruit from the 

 same tree of the year before. I have no patent for the building, and you, 

 reader, may do with what I here write as you please. But to a description : 



First — A level piece of ground, from whence water could be readily drained 

 at a depth of five feet, was selected. The measurement was thirteen feet by 

 twenty-one, and this was dug out with a straight bank all around, four feet; 

 seven-foot posts of four by four-inch stuff were placed at the corners, and two 

 between the corners on each of the longest sides. Before these were set up 

 they were boarded on what was to be the outside, with inch boards. The roof 

 5^ 



