THE SECRETAKY'S PORTFOLIO. 215 



apartment was full. In like manner each of the other apartments was filled. 

 The whole cellar was so filled that it was as solidly stored with fruit as if there 

 had been no bins, they serving only for convenience of storing and packing. 



The gathering commenced the last week in September, 1880. In cool days 

 and nights the doors and windows Avere left open; in warm days, when the 

 external air was warmer than the cellar, they were closed. Windows where the 

 suncouldshine in were kept shaded. When freezuig weather came on the cellar 

 was closed up; the window and doorways were filled in with hay or straw, as 

 the doors were not double. A thermometer was kept in the cellar to ascertain 

 the temperature. TMie celhxr was not opened until the apples were marketed 

 in the spring. When the apples were packed, it was noted that they kept 

 equally well at the top, center and bottom of the bins. The quantity wholly 

 decayed was about one barrel out of 150. There were 5,000 bushels of apples 

 in that cellar. 



This method has these advantages: Tiiey are removed from the vicissitudes 

 of the weather as soon as gathered ; they require less handling, and hence less 

 expense in gathering. Being handled less they are less likely to be bruised. 

 They can be kept in a more even temperature. 



I know of no disadvantages that can overcome these advantages. If this is 

 not the best method of gathering and storing, tlie statement I make of my 

 experience may bring out the better experience of others. 



PICKING AND STORING APPLES. 



A correspondent of the Husbandman gives tlio following good suggestions 

 on the above topic : 



First provide a stock of boxes, which if cared for will serve for a lifetime. 

 Mine are two feet and four inches long, the stuff for sides and ends cut 11 

 inches wide, and for bottoms 12 inches wide, all one-half inch light pine, only 

 the end boards, which are three-quarters of an inch tiiick. Nailed on each 

 end is a two-inch cleat, also of half-inch stuff, raised a quarter of an inch 

 above the top of tlie box, which serves to hold upon when carrying, and also 

 to keep the boxes in place when nested together. The boxes are mechani- 

 cally alike and the fruit in them is as effectually protected from atmospheric 

 influence as it would be headed up in barrels. Such boxes hold a large bushel 

 and weigh perhaps twice as much as a five-peck basket. They are filled in the 

 orchard, placed one upon another in the wagon till a load is made up, and put 

 in the cellar without emptying from baskets or bags or bruising in other ways, 

 and piled in tiers the whole length, if you desire to utilize all the room possi- 

 ble, the longest keeping fruit being placed in position to be last reached. In 

 that condition they are left untouched till wanted, the small quantity in each 

 box not generating moisture to cause decay, and when wanted are in shape to 

 be easily and pleasantly reached. Labels may be attached to the exposed end 

 of each box if desired. Men who have given this method years of trial say 

 that their fruit keeps much better than when put in a position to pick over; 

 that more fruit can be stored in a given amount of cellar room than in any 

 other way; that such boxes exactly supply a long felt want, and will certainly 

 be rated by anybody who uses them a few times as worth much more than cost, 

 which in my own case was a little over 20 cents each. But cheaper material 



