250 The Canadian Horticulturist. 



PICKING FRUIT. 



VERY person, child or adult, when plucking fruit of any 

 sort, should be taught how to separate the stems from the 

 twigs or spurs without damaging the buds that contain the 

 embryos of a future crop. When plucking apples or pears, 

 instead of hauling ofif the fruit with spurs, buds and leaves, 

 take hold of the apple or pear and at the same time thrust 

 ^^ the thumb nail against the base of the stem and pull on the 

 fruit, and thus sever the stem from the fruit spur at the seam prepared in the 

 growth of the stem and spur for the separation of fruit and spur. When pluck- 

 ing cherries, take hold of the long stems and separate them with the thumb 

 nail, handling the fruit by the stems rather than by taking hold of the fruit. If 

 the hand clasps a cluster of cherries, and the fruit is hauled off carelessly, the 

 fruit-spur will be broken off together with all the half mature fruit. Then, if 

 the cherries are fully ripe, and they are clawed off without taking hold of the 

 stems, the fruit and stems will be separated, to the great damage of the ripe 

 fruit. When cherries are to be used immediately they may be pulled off the 

 stems. But when the fruit is to be sent to market, the stems should not be 

 separated, as the rupture of the fruit incident to the separation of the stems will 

 hasten decay and damage appearance, because as soon as the stems of cherries 

 are removed from the fruit the juice will flow out. 



Almost every variety of cherries fail to ripen with desirable uniformity. 

 For this reason the persons who pluck the fruit should be instructed to glean 

 only the ripe fruit without hauling off immature specimens. But whoever is 

 allowed to pluck cherries should have this brief precept — " be careful of the 

 fruit spurs " — reiterated, until he or she will understand that the fruit buds, the 

 fruit-spurs, the little branches that are loaded with fruit, must not be crushed 

 by the feet or pulled off by careless hands. Make every dullard understand 

 that every twig and fruit-spur broken ofif represents a cluster of cherries of next 

 year's crop, and the fruit for many future years actually lost by inexcusable 

 heedlessness. There should be many placards posted up where pickers can 

 read the important words : " Do not break ofif the fruit-spurs." — Sereno E- 

 Todd, in Country Gentleman. 



New Raspberries. — Heebner is a new red raspberry, which Mr. W. W. 

 Hillborn; of Leamington, Ont., is growing from the seeds of the wild raspberry. 

 The quality is good and the bushes very productive, but too soft for a distant 

 market. Mr. Craig, in his Raspberry Bulletin, estimates that it would yield 

 more than four times the Cuthbert at Ottawa. Columbia, according to the 

 same authority, is a purple berry, seedling of Cuthbert ; it much resembles 

 Shaffer, but is firmer and less acid. Royal Church. — Mr. Craig says he finds 

 this not as vigorous or as hardy as the Cuthbert. Superlative also, he says, is 

 deficient in vigor and hardiness. 



