ON GATHERING AND STORING FRUIT. 4S5 



wants ? In some parts of the country, this loss, when it occurs, falls with far 

 :greater severity than in others. In most of the southern and western counties 

 of England, cider is not only made for the consumption of the rest of tho 

 kingdom, but forms the chief drink of the labouring classes ; and the quan- 

 tity of apples consumed in its manufacture is something enormous. In 

 Devonshire and Herefordshire the cider orchards are on a very extensive 

 scale ; and in these, and some other counties, a bad apple crop causes even far 

 greater pecuniary loss than a deficient wheat crop in other neighbourhoods. 

 The process of fruit-gathering for cider purposes is, for the most pai-t, carried 

 on in a very rude, and, we should consider, in a very wasteful manner. It is 

 called "poulting," and consists in striking the different branches of the trees 

 with a long pole to shake oflF the fruit, which is then gathered up from tho 

 ground. It can hardly be a matter of doubt that a more careful method would 

 be less injurious to the trees, and thus, in the long run, be far more profitable 

 to the grower. 



1488. From these remarks upon the gathering of fruit, we come next to the 

 storing and preservation of it, — a most important part of the subject; for 

 nature's all-bountiful goodness may be lost to us, and all the care and all the 

 toil of the most skilful cultivator thrown away, if some good and efficient plan 

 be not adopted to preserve the fruit after it has ripened and been gathered in. 

 Our observations, of course, must still be regarded as confined to apples and 

 pears, — those two staple fruits which, as we before remarked, are the only 

 winter suj^ply of our own growth, with the exception of nuts ; and of these 

 it will be more convenient to treat by-and-by. 



1489. Taking it for granted, then, that the gathering of apples and pears is 

 well over, and the time for storing come, how can these two most valuable 

 products be best preserved ? It would be easy to place upon paper our own 

 theory, and to show that in a particular neighbourhood, and where expense is 

 no object, one plan of preservation has a decided preference over all others; 

 but writing, as we do, for the general information of those who live in a 

 country so variable in climate and in soil as our own, it is not possible to 

 affirm that, for general adoption, any one plan is abstractedly the best ; for 

 there must undoubtedly be a considerable modification of treatment between 

 fruit grown upon a wet soil and in a humid atmosphere and that grown upon 

 a light dry soil where the atmosphere is less moist. Again, all persons are 

 not in a condition to construct a fruit-room, and to manage the preservation 

 or winter-storing of fruit in the manner even best suited to their own neighbour- 

 hood ; but they must make use of any spare chamber which they may happen 

 to have for a store-room, and be content with the ai-rangements of which it 

 will admit ; so that, after all that may be said or written upon this subject, 

 it is obvious that much must remain for experience to teach or suggest. 

 While describing the sort of fruit-house, therefore, which so experienced 

 •a fruitist as M. Du Breuil recommends, and pointing out the general princi- 

 ples which ought to regulate all attempts at the preservation of fruit, and 

 enumerating the various plans which are in use for this purpose, we shall leave 



