The Canadian Horticulturist. 



325 



PREPARING PLUMS FOR MARKET. 



In most cases experience has proven that- plums, if shipped to market in 

 ten-pound grape baskets, provided with handles, and put up in neat, presentable 

 shape, will bring the producer a greater per cent, of profit than if shipped in 

 half-bushel, or bushel crates, or packages. A careful picker can fill the basket 

 direct from the tree ; but the usual plan is to pick into large receptacles, then, 

 carefully sorting the plums, to place them in packages ready for the market. 

 This frequent handling removes a great deal of the bloom from the fruit, which 

 removal should be avoided as much as possible. By the use of a single table, 

 similar to the one shown in the engraving, from the American Agriculturist, 

 plums and other similar fruits are easily sorted. The top of the table should 

 not be over three feet long and two and one-half feet wide. The sides and 

 back, r, r, r, may be eight inches wide at the back, tapering to three inches in 

 front : the front guards, c, c, should be less than three inches high, leaving a 



six-inch space between the inner ends ; the 

 slanting board, g, is six inches wide. To 

 operate it, place the fruit carefully upon the 

 table, the sorter occupying a chair in front 

 of the table, with a basket on his lap. Both 

 1^^^ hands can then be used in removing the 

 Cleaves, limbs, damaged or imperfect fruit, 

 throwing the refuse into baskets, m, m, lo- 

 cated upon the floor, at a convenient point 

 upon each side. The perfect fruit or that 

 intended for shipping, is rolled in front, and passes over the incline, g, into the 

 basket. This table need cost but little, and may be made in as crude or elab- 

 orate a form as wished. In working, the elbows can rest upon the guards, c, c, 

 which will make the operation much easier. An ordinary table can be fitted 

 with these simple appliances, and quickly removed after the shipping season is 

 passed. 



Fig. s;24. — Table for Assorting Pnii? 



The Apple as Medicine— Dr. G. R. Searles, of Brooklyn, N. Y,, thus 

 discourses on the apple as medicine : " The apple is such a common fruit that 

 ver)- few persons are familiar with its remarkably eflScacious medicinal properties. 

 Everybody ought to know that the very best thing they can do is to eat apples 

 just before retiring for the night. Persons uninitiated in the mysteries of the 

 fruit are liable to throw up their hands in horror at the visions of dyspepsia 

 which such a suggestion may summon up ; but no harm can come to even a 

 delicate system by the eating of ripe and juicy apples just before going to bed. 

 The apple is an excellent brain-food, because it has more phosphoric acid in 

 easily-digestible shape than other fruits. It excites the action of the liver, pro- 

 motes sound and healthy sleep, and thoroughly disinfects the mouth. Thisis 

 not all. The apple helps the kidney secretions and prevents calculus growths 

 while it obviates indigestion, and is one of the best preventives known of 

 diseases of the throat. Everybody should be familiar with such knowledge." 



