THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 281 



It is considered a good plan to gather pears before they are ripe, 

 but experience has taught us that an error may be committed by 

 attending to this opinion. The produce of some young trees, raised 

 by the late President of the Horticultural Society, were left during 

 the last autumn, until all the leaves bad fallen from t K e boughs, and 

 -were then stored. They were in fine condition at the end of January. 

 There are many methods of keeping apples, and very various, which, 

 we suppose, proves that one is not to be preferred to another. 

 Certain it is that we ourselves have made trial of every one, and 

 much trouble and pains have been taken in order to ascertain the 

 best. As very frequently happens, the simplest plan is found to be 

 the most available — namely, to exercise care in gathering; that 

 is indispensable, to insure them from being bruised. They should 

 be laid on a clean barn floor in heaps for a few days, then packed in 

 barrels, chests, etc., being put in one by one ; thus enabling the 

 person employed to select all that may be in the slightest degree 

 bruised or otherwise damaged or defective ; all such should be put 

 aside, and placed in a hamper, etc., to be first used. The main store 

 ought to be now covered over with a wooden cover, and be placed 

 in a cool place ; and on the approach of frost they should be removed 

 to a >ate situation. 



Once in the course of the season it is requisite to look them over ; 

 but not more frequently. We have, in former years, taken infinite 

 pains with our stock of winter fruit, but the results bave never 

 b^en commensurate with the trouble. 



So much care is requisite to prevent bruising, that the less it is 

 handled the better. Almost every material in which apples ate 

 packed will communicate an unpleasant flavour— straw, however 

 clean ; sand, however dry, however fresh ; hay, however sweet— and 

 tor this obvious reason, if no other — these adjuncts themselves alter 

 by time, and decay. Hence we give the preference to simple, care- 

 ful packing, and always find the plan superior to any other. 



THE PREPARATION OF SOILS AKD COMPOSTS. 



EENCE the use of manure in a liquid state has become so 

 veiy fashionable among both professional and amateur 

 cultivators, it is doubtful whether too little attention 

 has not been paid to the use of proper soils and com- 

 posts ; for though manure, in the liquid state, is a con- 

 venient and excellent aid, it is quite certain that a properly prepared 

 compost, as containing ali the ingredients which a plant can require 

 from the sod, is the best to be used. According to old rules, or, 

 indeed, to practices of the present time, composts consist of various 

 ingredients mixed together in the prepared or decomposed state, as 

 mellow loam, leaf-mould, rotten dung, etc. 



These, though good and healthy, except in special cases, are not 

 calculated to induce luxuriant growth ; for the manure of old hot- 



Beptemher. 



