26o 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURISi . 



The next day I brought some to market, 

 which I had picked myself carefully with the 

 stems, putting in no specimens which con- 

 tained defects visible on the outside. 



Without telling the grocer that I had any, 

 I asked him if I could sell him some. "Why, 

 no," he said ; " we have cherries and they go 

 very slowly." I got him to look at the few 

 baskets I had and he asked me my price and 

 took them and ordered some more for the 

 following day. He paid me a higher price 

 at wholesale than, he asked for the others at 

 retail, so that it is altogether possible that 

 the party furnishing the others did not re- 

 ceive more than half or two-thirds what I 

 did. 



The cherries being picked green were not 

 more than half size, so the picker had to pick 

 double the number for the same measure, 

 losing the growth as well as the beauty of 



the matured fruit, which is the most salable 

 quality fruit possesses. 



It is worse than useless to take to market 

 a single specimen of anything which is too 

 poor to be consumed. 



There is a loss in marketing immature 

 fruit. There is a loss in size and increase 

 in labor and a final loss of price. Cherries 

 require the most careful handling of any 

 fruit sold, and I find it is profitable to hire 

 it picked by mature hands of good judg- 

 ment. They will more than save their 

 wages in the discrimination they use in gath- 

 ering the fruit. 



In gathering large cherries with the stems 

 six or eight quarts per hour can easily be 

 gathered. I find that they are best mar- 

 keted in the quart berry boxes ; this saves 

 rehandling and much mussing of the fruit. 

 — L,. B. Pierce in Green's Fruit Grower. 



THE ACIDS OF FRUITS. 



THE grateful acid of the rhubarb leaf 

 arises from the malic acid and bi- 

 noxalate of potash which it contains ; the 

 acidity of the lemon, orange, and other spe- 

 cies of the genus Citrus is caused by the 

 abundance of citric acid which their juice 

 contains ; that of the cherry, plum, apple and 

 pear, from the malic acid in their pulp ; that 

 of gooseberries and currants, black, red and 

 white, from a mixture of malic and citric 

 acids ; that of the grape, from a mixture of 

 malic and tartaric acids ; that of the mango, 

 from citric acid and a very fugitive essential 

 oil ; that of the tamarind, from a mixture of 

 citric, malic and tartaric acids ; the flavor of 

 asparagus from aspartic acid, found also in 

 the root of the marsh mallow ; and that of - 

 the cucumber, from a peculiar poisonous in- 

 gredient called fungin, which is found in all 

 fungi, and is the cause of the cucumber be- 

 ing offensive to some stomachs. It will be 



observed that rhubarb is the only fruit 

 which contains binoxalate of potash in con- 

 nection with an acid. It is this ingredient 

 which renders this fruit so wholesome at the 

 early commencement of the .summer, and 

 this is one of the wise provisions of nature 

 for supplying a blood purifier at a time when 

 it is likely to be most needed. Beetroot 

 owes its nutritious quality to about nine per 

 cent, of sugar which it contains, and its fla- 

 vor to a peculiar substance containing nitro- 

 gen mixed with pectic acid. The carrot 

 owes its fattening powers also to sugar, and 

 its flavor to a peculiar fatty oil ; the horse 

 radish derives its flavor and blistering power 

 from a volatile acrid oil. The Jerusalem 

 artichoke contains fourteen and a half per 

 cent, of sugar and three per cent of inulin 

 (a variety of starch), besides gum and a pe- 

 culiar substance to which its flavor is owing, 

 — Chemistry of the World. 



