180 ORCHARDS. 



GATHERING, PRESERVING AND MANAGEMENT OF 



APPLES. 



The art of keeping or preserving fruit, is simply the pre- 

 vention of the chemical processes which produce their dis- 

 solution ; as life, whether animal or vegetable, prevents 

 putrefaction. Many fruits exist long after they are gathered 

 from the tree, before they become matured and ripe, and die 

 spontaneously, and, in consequence putrefy, as crabs, sloes, 

 pears, apples, &c. The art of preserving them consists in 

 storing them, where the heat is neither much above or below 

 48 degrees, which is the temperature of the interior parts of 

 the earth; that is in a dry cellar, or beneath the soil ; or well- 

 covered with straw leaves, or mats in a room. As greater 

 heat might make them ripen sooner than they are wanted, by 

 the increased activity of their vegetable life; and frost by 

 destroying that life, would subject them to putrefy, when they 

 become thawed; as often happens to apples and potatoes, 

 which are not well defended from frost — and lastly the moisture 

 would injure them in many respects ; first, by its contributing 

 to destroy their vegetable life ; secondly, in promoting the chem- 

 ical process of putrefaction ; and thirdly, by its encouraging 

 the growth of mucor or mould, which will grow in most situ- 

 ations without much light or air. 



Great cold, on the contrary, destroys both animals and 

 vegetables by the torpor occasioned by the defect of stimulus, 

 and a consequent temporary death. Afterwards, if a great 

 degree of cold be continued, in some cases, the expansion of 

 their freezing juices may burst the vegetable vessels, and thus 

 render the life of them irrecoverable. It is affirmed by 

 Mons. Reaumeur, that if frozen apples be dipped in cold 

 water repeatedly, and the ice thus formed on their surface 

 wiped off, or if they be left in a large pailful 1 of very cold 

 water, so that they may not thaw too hastily, they will not 

 loose their flavor. It this be true, and the apples will keep 

 sound some time afterwards, it would seem that vegetable life 

 was not destroyed ; but that, like sleeping insects, they are 

 re-animated by the warmth ; otherwise, if the flavor be not de- 



