242 PRINCIPLES OF GARDENING. [CH. VII. 



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 tliis most powerful 

 antiseptic. If it were not from its soiling 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 fuithest from the stalk is invariably the 

 first to ripen. This is most perceptible in pears, 

 especially in the Chaumontelle. That end, therefore, 

 should be slightly embedded in the sand, as thus ex- 

 cluding it from the light, checks its progress in 

 ripening. 



The perfecting of seed is a process very similar to 

 the matui'ation of fniit — indeed, for the most part, 

 whatever advances the one promotes the other. The 

 chief difference is that, if seed be the exclusive object, 

 less moisture and rich food should be supplied to the 

 plants, inasmuch as that an abundant supply of 

 these increases excessively the developement of the 

 succulent part of the fniit, and yet tlie vessels from 

 this to the seed ^ritlier and render it abortive. A 

 similar defective fertility occurs if the female parent 

 in animals is over-stimulated and fat. In the gai'- 

 dener s department it is most apparent in the pine 

 apple. 



