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the open air at the season when the i slight, therefore, are to be avoided; 

 functions of the leaves have ceased, and instead of putting fruit in heaps to 

 and the fruit no longer enlarges. In sweat, as it is ignorantly termed, but 

 gathering fruit, every care should be in fact to heat and promote decay, fruit 

 adopted to avoid bruising; and, to this should be placed one by one upon a 

 end, in the case of apples, pears, floor covered with dry sand, and the 

 quinces, and medlars, let the gathering 

 basket be lined throughout with sack- 

 ing, and let the contents of each basket 

 be carried at once to a floor covered 

 with sand, and taken out one by one, 

 not poured out, as is too usual, into a 

 basket, and then again from this into a 

 heap, for this systematic mode of in- 

 flicting small braises is sure to usher in 

 decay, inasmuch as that it bursts the 

 divisional membranes of the cells con- 

 taining the juice, and this being-extra' 



day following, if the air be dry, be 

 wiped and stored away as before di- 

 rected. Fruit for storing should not 

 only be gathered during the middle 

 hours of a dry day, but after the oc- 

 curence of several such. 



'•'Although the fruit is stored in sand, 

 it is not best for it to be kept there up 

 to the very time of using, for the pre- 

 sence of light and air is necessary for 

 the elaboration of saccharine matter. 

 A fortnight's consumption of each sort 



vasated, speedily passes from the stage ! should be kept upon beach, birch, or 

 of spirituous fermentation to that of elm shelves, with a ledge all round, to 

 putref;iction. To avoid this is the prin- keep on them about half an inch in 



cipal object of fruit storing, whilst at 

 the same time it is necessary that the 

 fruit shall be kept firm and juicy. Now 

 it so happens, that the means required 

 to secure the one also effects the other 



depth of dry sand ; on this the fruit 

 rests softly, and the vacancy caused by 

 every day's consumption should be re- 

 placed from the boxes as it occurs. If 

 deal is employed for the shelving, it is 



" To preserve the juiciness of the apt to impart a flavour of turpentine to 

 fruit, nothing more is required than a | the fruit. The store-room should have 

 low temperature, and the exclusion of a northern aspect, be on a second floor, 

 the atmospheric air. The best practical and have at least two windows, to pro- 

 mode of doing this is to pack the fruit ' mote ventilation in dry days. A stove 

 in boxes of perfectly dried pit-sand, in the room, or hot-water pipe with a 

 employing boxes or bins, and taking regulating cock, is almost essentialj for 

 care that no two apples or pears touch, heat will be required occasionally in 

 The sand should be thoroughly dried very cold and in damp weather; the 

 by fire-heat, and over the uppermost windows should have stout inside shut- 

 layer of fruit the sand should form a ters. Sand operates as a preservative, 



covering nine inches deep. 



not only by excluding air and moisture, 



Putrefaction requires indispensably ; but by keeping the fruit cool; for it is 

 three contingencies — moisture, warmth, one of the worst conductors of heat, 

 and the presence of atmospheric air, or and moreover it keeps carbonic acid in 

 at least of its oxygen. Now burying in contact with the fruit. All fruit in 

 sand excludes all these as much as can ripening emits carbonic acid, and this 

 be practically effected ; and it excludes, gas is one of the most powerful prevent- 

 moreover, the light, which is one of the ives of decay known, 

 prime agents in the ripening of fruit. I " The temperature of the fruit room 

 The more minutely divided into small should never rise above 40°, nor sink 

 portions animal or vegetable juices may ' below 34° of Fahrenheit's thermometer, 

 be, so much longer are they preserved 

 from "putridity : hencfll one of the rea- 

 sons why bruised fruit decays more 

 quickly than sound ; the membranes of 

 the pulp dividing it into little cells, are 

 ruptured and a larger quantity of the 

 juices are together ; but this is only 

 one reason, for bruising allows the air 

 to penetrate, and it deranges that inex- 

 plicable vital power, which whilst un- 

 injured acts 80 antiseptically in all 

 fruits, seed, and eggs. Bruises the most 



the more regular the better. Powdered 

 charcoal is even a better preservative 

 for packing fruit than sand ; and one 

 box not to be opened until April, ought 

 to be packed with this most powerful 

 antiseptic. If it were not from its soil- 

 ing nature, and the trouble consequent 

 upon its employment, I should advocate 

 its exclusive use ; I have kept apples 

 perfectly sound in it until June. 



" It is not unworthy of observation, 

 that the eye or extremity farthest from 



