294 THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



the choicest kinds should be examined frequently at this season to 

 see when they ought to be gathered. Fine weather should be 

 chosen for storing all kinds ; and all that is required to be kept 

 will of course require to be gathered with the hand, and all that fall 

 or are knocked off accidentally should be put on one side for im- 

 mediate use. Wherever it is practicable, I should advise the fruit 

 -to be carried straight to the fruit-room in the baskets in which it is 

 gathered, instead of tumbling them into larger baskets, sacks, and 

 wheelbarrows. The less it is shifted about the less likely it is to 

 get bruised ; and it is well known that bruised fruit will not keep for 

 any length of time. It is a most excellent plan to have a cross- 

 handle basket, large enough to hold two pecks, and to suspend it by 

 a strong hook made in the form of the letter S to one of the main 

 branches. It can then be filled carefully on the ladder and taken 

 to the fruit-room, and the fruit spread out upon the shelves. I am 



• now alluding to gathering from large trees, but the same form of 

 basket is the most useful when the trees are so dwarf that the whole 

 crop can be gathered by standiug on the ground. 



When the fruit is brought into the store-room, it should be 

 spread out on the shelves carefully about two layers thick, and 

 plenty of air admitted until the fruit has done sweating, when no 

 more light and air must be admitted than is really necessary to 

 keep the atmosphere of the house sweet. The fruit should be care- 

 fully examined occasionally, and those showing signs of decay 

 removed at once ; for if left without attention they will soon rot the 

 ' sound ones which come in contact with them. When placed on 

 ' shelves constructed as I shall recommend, no straw should be used, 

 excepting it be to cover them in severe weather to protect from 

 frost. It may, perhaps, be necessary for want of room to put some 

 of the common apples thicker than I have advised ; but their keep- 

 ing qualities will be considerably impaired if they are kept in too 

 large a heap for any length of time. They should be frequently 



• turned with the hand to remove those showing signs of decay, or 

 they will soon be a mass of rottenness fit only for the muck-heap. 

 The temperature must be kept as regular as possible, for when the 

 fruit is warmer than the surrounding air, it is \'ery liable to shrivel; 

 but when there is a sudden rise in the temperature the surface 

 becomes moist, just the same as if it had been exposed to an evening 

 (ievr. A very little thought and observation will convince any one 

 with an ordinary degree of intelligence that fruit exposed to these 

 alternate wettings and dryings must be considerably deteriorated. 

 With hollow walls, or solid ones lined in the way I shall advise, 

 there will not be much difficulty in keeping a uniform temperature. 

 Air should only be admitted when the external air and that inside 

 the house are about the same, as it would be anything but good 

 management to throw open the ventilators during the prevalence of 

 Honh-easterly winds to cool the temperature, or during warm 

 southern breezes, which would have an opposite effect. 



The size of the fruit-room must, as a matter of course, depend 

 entirely upon the extent of the orchards and wall-trees. It is not 



• advisable to have the house too small, so that the fruit has to be 



