350 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



weather is hard on the gathered apple crop, for apples will 'speck,' and 

 one unsound apple in a barrel will soon contaminate others. Stjle, 

 fashion and taste rule the apple market as completely as they do the 

 silk, satin and dry-goods counters, and many of the old reliable sorts 

 of fruit that were popular in our grandfathers' day have little call in 

 the market now. 



Of all fruit, there is none more conducive to health than a choice, 

 ripe apple, and from the days of the famous dumplings whose mechan- 

 ism puzzled the old-time English king until the present period, apples 

 in some form have been one of the mainstays of the household menu* 

 The mallic acid they contain is as important as lime or carbon for the 

 general constitution, and a barrel of apples in the cellar for constant 

 use will save, it is said, more than quadruple its cost in doctor's bills. 

 Francis Gowen, the great railroad lawyer, used to boast during his 

 lifetime of eating an apple regularly as a daily afternoon lunch, and 

 many of the corner applewomen have among their best customers 

 some of the most prominent business men in their districts. Apples 

 are gathered from the trees nowadays as carefully as if they were eggs, 

 and no kind of winter weather is too cool for their keeping. The 

 apple crop of this year will take rank with the phenomenal yield of 

 corn and potatoes." 



Fruit Storage. 



There is some hope that sanitary reasons will banish the cave under 

 our houses that goes by the name of cellar. But there are other rea- 

 sons why a storage-room for fruit and vegetables should not be under 

 a house in which people live. The ideal cellar for fruit should have 

 an even temperature and does not reqviire ventilation. In fact, apples 

 will begin to rot rapidly as soon as windows are opened in April. 

 Keep the cellar closed. But it must be added that to keep apples well 

 a cellar must be slightly damp; not wet or moldy, but moist. This is 

 not the right atmosphere to have under our habitation rooms. Besides 

 a moist air cannot be had in connection with a furnace. The object of 

 the moisture is to balance the natural waste by evaporation or drying 

 of the fruit. Such a cellar as described, moist and close, preserves 

 fruit far better than one that is ventilated. The apples are then placed 

 in bins or hammocks that rise in tiers one above another ; leaving the 

 fruit not over six inches deep anywhere. These, after careful sorting, 

 and handling with tenderness, are stirred as little as possible till spring. 

 A cellar such as described is easily constructed under a barn or car- 

 riage-house, or as a separate building E. P. Powell in American 



Agriculturist. 



