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THE FLOEAL WOULD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



small bumps on its skin, and by its crawling instead of leap 

 There have been plenty of people, who though they might not, 

 perhaps, have found beauty in them, yet liked to make pets of 

 frogs and toads. We have known a family, who had a large pet 

 frog, called " Jacob," who was supposed to be fond of music. 

 When on summer evenings the drawing-room windows were left 

 open, and playing and singing likely to be going on, a "flop " would 

 be heard on the floor, and it would be found that Jacob had come 

 in to listen to the music ; and the greatest care was taken that no 

 one trod on him or set the legs of a chair on him, while some kind 

 of supper would be found to suit him before he took his leave. 

 Late in the autumu he and his fellow frogs will have returned to 

 their native ponds, where they spend the winter in the mud at the 

 bottom, and in the following spring have a concert of their own, 

 since frogs at that time of the year send forth their curious croaking, 

 the chorus often beginning in the twilight and continuing far into 

 the night. In America there is a species of frog, whose croaking is 

 not only louder, but also more musical than that of our frogs, so 

 that, as in England we go out sometimes after dark to listen to the 

 nightingales, people there will go out to hear a frog concert. 



(To be continued.) 



ON GATHERING AND STORING APPLES. 



jF it were possible to devote sufficient time to the opera- 

 tion, apples ought to be gathered as carefully as peaches ; 

 and for the 'superior sorts for keeping, the extra time 

 thus devoted would be amply compensated by the result. 

 Every apple that is bruised, before it is stored, is essen- 

 tially injured. It would be well, too, if judgment were exercised in 

 the time that is most suitable for gathering apples of various sorts. 

 Uulike other produce, this fruit is taken from the trees at one 

 period of the season, without any regard to the state of ripeness of 

 the different fruits. 



We have found that the fall of the leaf is a good criterion of the 

 right time to gather ; experience has taught us, and it is the best 

 guide, though we confess that accident led us to trust first to 

 experience. Some years since, havirtg barvestad our crop of apples 

 at the usual time, we found upon a tree in the orchard a peck or 

 two hanging after a severe fit of frost and snow, which lasted far 

 into December. We saw that they looked well, but concluded they 

 must be frosted, and could not be worth tasting, much less gather- 

 ing ; however, for the curiosity of the thing, we plucked and ate, 

 and apples so delicious off that tree we never tasted. While the 

 bulk of the crop which had been stored six weeks had become 

 yellow, mealy, and wrinkled, these were green, full, rich, juicy, and 

 with all that freshness of flavour which only a newly-gathered apple 

 possesses. We resolved to leave our crops much longer in future, 

 and have never deviated from the practice since. 



