MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 357 



■other apple, is to know whether or not they are adapted to your soil and 

 climate. Visit the orchards in the vicinity and note the character of 

 the soil that the different varieties do best on. This can easily be 

 found ont from the owner of the orchard, who will be glad to impart 

 any information that he has. This is the surest and best way to ascer- 

 tain, beyond a doubt beforehand, the apple that will do best for you. 

 If you find that the Ben Davis does well in the vicintyon the same soil 

 as yours, do not hesitate, but set out an orchard of them. If on the 

 the other hand, you find that repeated failures have been had with the 

 Ben Davis, while at their side some other variety has done well, it will 

 be policy to set out that kind. — Cincinnatti Commercial Gazette. 



WHY BA.RRELLED APPLES KEEP. 



If apples were placed loosely in barrels they would soon rot, 

 though passing over only a very short distance of travel, and yet, when 

 properly barreled, they can be sent thousands of miles, even over the 

 roughest ocean voyage, in perfect security. This owing to a fact dis- 

 covered years ago, without anyone knowing particularly the reason, 

 that an apple rotted from a bruise only when the skin was broken. An 

 apple can be pressed so as to have indentations over its whole surface 

 without any danger of rotting, providing the skin is not broken. In^ 

 barreling apples, therefore, a gentle pressure is exercised, so that the 

 fruit is fairly pressed into each other, and it is impossible for any one 

 fruit to change its place in the barrel on its journey. In these modern 

 times we understand the reason. In the modern times the air is full 

 of microscopic germs which produce fermentation, and unless they can 

 get an entrance into the fruit, rot cannot take place. A mere indenta- 

 tion without a rupture of the outer skin does not permit the action of 

 those microbes. — Meehan's Monthly. 



SUGGESTIONS TO APPLE PACKERS. 



Apples from the Austrian Tyrol which retail in German markets 

 at high prices are beautiful in appearance and firm of tissue, though 

 inferior to the best American apples in flavor and juiciness. These 

 apples are carefully picked by hand when dry, or if damp when gath- 

 ered, are thoroughly dried, and then placed by hand closely in barrels 

 lined with heavy manilla paper. At the bottom and top of the cask is 

 placed a thick layer of ''wood wool," or excelsior, or dry soft straw, 



