TOOLS AND STORING-BOOMS. 59 



with no more care. Nuts should be kept in a rather 

 damper place. 



The good keeping of fruit greatly depends on the care 

 with which it is gathered, as the slightest bruise will 

 spoil the keeping. Many amateur fruit-growers gather 

 their own fruit, and unless the gardener be unusually 

 careful and dexterous, there is scarcely a job in the whole 

 garden on which a gentleman can better bestow his own 

 personal work and attention. 



The fruit should, one by one, be quietly removed 

 from the tree and gently laid, not thrown, into the 

 basket. Apples and pears should never, on any account, 

 be poured from one basket to another, or on to the 

 floor, but gently removed, if necessary, by hand. It is 

 advisable not only to pick the fruit with the greatest 

 care and gentleness, but to avoid shifting it from basket 

 to basket. Lay it softly in the first basket, in that 

 convey it to where it is to be spread out to dry, and 

 with equal care lay out all that are sound and good, and 

 pick out for immediate use (for self or friends or pig, 

 according to degree of damage) all that are touched by 

 an insect, even in a slight degree, and all that have 

 a suspicion of a bruise. The way often followed of 

 throwing the apples or other fruit into a basket as they 

 are gathered, and pouring them from one basket to 

 another, or upon the ground, cannot fail to lead to plenty 

 of decayed fruit and proportionate disappointment. 



Fruit-rooms are sometimes warmed artificially with 

 flues, or a stove not in the room itself, but in an 

 adjoining cupboard ; but a little management will, almost 

 for certain, keep out frost and preserve fruit through 

 our winters. 



Choice fruit for the London markets is packed in 

 small boxes or baskets, each fruit separately wrapped in 

 paper or wool, according to what it is, and the inter- 

 stices filled up with bits of paper rolled up, or something 

 similarly yielding, yet firm enough to keep the fruit 

 from shifting. I have known apples and pears keep 

 very well in a large press or cupboard, but a room better 

 supplied with air is preferable. Apples may also be 



