FRUIT-GROWING. 75 



but housekeeping has been found to be something entirely 

 different. To manage a fruit-cellar successfully requires 

 skill, judgment, and a constant supervision. The light 

 should be admitted sparingly, the air kept pure, and the 

 temperature low and uniform. 



Apples for market should be carefully packed in barrels, 

 and the head of the barrel so firmly pressed in, that under 

 no circumstances should the}^ be allowed to move in the bar- 

 rel. The package in which any fruit is presented to the 

 consumer has much to do with the price he is willing to 

 pay for it ; and he who uses old barrels instead of new, be- 

 cause he can save ten or fifteen cents apiece in the purchase, 

 has yet a lesson to learn. Putting new wine into old bottles 

 would indeed be wisdom, compared with the folly of putting 

 choice apples into old, musty barrels. 



Of course, none but first-class fruit should be shipped long 

 distances, as the freight is regulated by quantity, and not by 

 qualit3\ In sorting and packing apples for shipment, whether 

 they be intended for foreign or domestic market, great care 

 should be taken to have them uniform in size and appear- 

 ance. Supposing them all to be perfect, large and small 

 should not be packed in the same barrel. Where Nos. 1 and 

 2 are found in the same barrel, the latter invariably fixes the 

 price for the mixtures. 



A friend who has spent three years travelling in England, 

 and countries bordering on the North Sea, assures me that 

 the market for American apples is absolutely unlimited ; 

 that the bulk of those grown there would not compare favor- 

 ably with those which the Berkshire farmer grinds for cider. 

 When a steamer arrives, one of the first things sought for 

 on the invoice is American apples ; and the supply has ever 

 fallen short of the demand. Baldwins are now selling (Nov. 

 1, 1878) on the wharf, as they come from the steamer, for 

 one pound per barrel. The most of the shipments are con- 

 sumed in the seaports where they are landed, and you rarely 

 find them in the interior. 



The belt in which the apple grows to perfection lies 

 comparatively within narrow limits, embracing scarcely ten 

 degrees of latitude. The advantages it offers to the fruit- 

 grower are evidently not full}^ appreciated. 



Much of the fruit which was formerly shipped to New 

 England now finds a market west of the Mississippi. 



