ON GATHERING A.N'D STORING FRUIT. 493' 



"Select the finest fruit,— peaches, strawberries, pears, apples,— what j'ou 

 please," says a. writer in the American Horiiculiiu-alist. " It should be just 

 ripe, but not beyond that stage, and perfectly free from bruises. Fill the 

 canisters, place the tin lids in their places, and solder them down, leaving onljr 

 a small hole the size of a pin in the centre of the lid for the escape of air. 

 The next point is to driA'e all air out of the canister. In order to do 

 this, take a broad flat-bottomed boiler pan, place the canisters in it, and 

 fill the boiler with water to within about three-fourths of an inch of the tops 

 of the canisters ; place the boiler over a gentle fire until the water boils. 

 This will drive all the air from each canister ; but to make sure that it is all 

 expelled, when the temperature of the water in the boiler is about 200° Fahr., 

 let a drop of water fall on the hole: when the bubbles of air cease to rise 

 through the water thus dropped, the air is all expelled. You may now pass a 

 dry cloth over the top, and solder them by letting a drop of solder fall on 

 each. This seals the canister hennetically, provided it has been properly made, 

 and the fruit will remain perfectly unchanged for years. The immersion of 

 the canisters in boiling water does not impart the slightest taste of having 

 been cooked to the fruit ; but the canisters should be left to cool gradually in 

 a dry place." 



15 18. We should have some fears that the flavour of fruit so preserved would 

 be materially changed, in spite of the writer's assurance. It is probably too 

 expensive a process also, except for the more delicate fruits. We believe the 

 apples and pears which reach us from America come in casks, in which layers 

 of cork sawdust alternate with layers of fruit, which has previously undergone 

 a drying process by exposure in a dry and shaded room. 



15 19. In respect to peaches, apricots, and nectarines, we need not tell our 

 readers that their handling must be of the most delicate nature. As the fruit 

 approaches the ripe state, nets or mats suspended on short stakes should be 

 suspended beneath the fruit, each having a lining of dry moss or lawn-grass, 

 not to supersede hand-picking, but to guard against accidental falling. When 

 a gathering is to take place, a shallow basket should be selected, covered with 

 a layer of moss or leaves, and each fruit as it is removed from the tree should 

 be deposited in it, separated from those already in the basket by a leaf placed 

 under it, and covered with another, to protect it from contact with the next, 



1520. With such delicate fruit as the peach and its congeners, no mode of 

 preservation for winter use will be effective, unless it be the American process 

 which we have given in detail; but even packing it for short journeys 

 requires much care. Let us recommend for this purpose a box sufficiently 

 deep to hold two tiers of fruit, and no more, and pack these with the fol- 

 lowing precautions :— The box being read}', and a quantity of well-beaten and' 

 dry moss, or dried lawn-grass in the absence of moss, being provided, wrap 

 each fruit, with the bloom untouched, in a piece of tissue or other equally 

 soft paper, and pack them pretty closely with moss until the first layer is 

 completed, and make it perfectly level by filling up with moss, placing an 

 inner lid over the tier ; make a second layer in the sanie manner, and put 



