OATIIERINO AND PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. 



" The Dry Fruits, sucli as filberts, chestnuts, &c., are gathered at the moment 

 when they detach themselves from the trees. 



" In gathering fruits, a dry time and a cloudless sky should bo chosen ; and the 

 middle of the day, from noon to four o'clock, is the best time to operate, as the fruits 

 are charged with less humidity, the flavor is more concentrated, and those destined to 

 be preserved keep better. This rule applies to all fruits. 



"2d. Mode of Gathering. — The best method of gathering fruits consists in 

 detaching them one by one with the hand. All pressure should be avoided as far as 

 possible, as every bruise is followed by a brown spot which gives place to and brings 

 on the rapid decay of the entire fruit. 



II. PRESERVATION. 



" The preservation of fruits can only bo applied to those which ripen during the 

 winter, and which, detached from the tree before the first frosts, are placed under 

 shelter from the cold to complete their maturity. The gi-ape only is an exception to 

 this. Summer and autumn fruits are also preserved, but only by the aid of certain 

 proceedings such as drying, and cooking more or less perfect, added to the exclusion 

 of air or the addition of sugar — proceedings which result in discoloring the fruit and 

 altering their flavor more or less sensibly. We can not here describe the different 

 methods. 



" To preserve the fruits of winter, it is necessary, first, to prevent the action of frost, 

 which disorganizes them completely ; second, to retard the progress of their maturity 

 in such a manner that a certain number of them will not ripen till towards the month 

 of May in the following year. Experience has demonstrated that decomposition suc- 

 ceeds quite rapidly to complete maturity, and that it is impossible to prolong their 

 preservation beyond this point. 



" To obtain more or less perfectly the two-fold condition which we come to describe, 

 depends upon the construction of the place in which the fruits are deposited, the fruit- 

 room, and to the care which they receive. 



" 1st. Of the Fruit-Room. — The fruit-room will give the more satisfactory results 

 in proportion as it fills the six following conditions : 



" 1. That its temperature he uniformly equal. It is by changes of temperature, 

 which expand or rarify the liquids contained in the fruits, that fermentation is excited 

 and the interior organization destroyed, phenomena from which result maturity or 

 ripeness. 



"2. That this temperature should he eight to ten degrees ahove freezing. A higher 

 temperature favors fermentation too much. If, on the contrary, it is lowered to two or 

 three degrees, this fermentation ceases and maturation becomes stationary. Thus we 

 see fruits preserved five or six months in an ice-house. In this case the end aimed at 

 has been exceeded ; for we are obliged, in taking them from the ice-house, to expose 

 the fruits for a certain length of time to a higher temperature, in order to ripen 

 The fruits thus preserved ripen afterwards with difficulty, and their quality 



often found altered. 



