338 THE YEAR-BOOK OF AGRICULTURE. 



fully the general method of procedure. Instead of feet properly shod stepping carefully 

 among the branches and delicate twigs, how often does the iron-shod heel bi-uise or tear off 

 the bark, and leave ragged wounds to be healed by the abused tree ! Instead of picking off 

 the fruit one by one, and placing it gently and with care in the basket, the long pole to whip 

 the branches is brought into requisition ; and though if may be sport to the lads to see the 

 apples fly through the air and fall heavily upon the earth, pierced, very likely, by the stubble 

 of the wheat, oat, or barley crop, (taken off that the use of the land be notlost,) yet when 

 gathered, how few will you find in a fit state for keeping ! 



Now, all this wholesale process of bruising and waste may be remedied, by the exercise 

 of a little forethought in providing means of access to the branches of the trees. Had we a 

 crop of nice fruit to gather, in anticipation of the friendly fireside chat during the long 

 winter evenings, we should not deem it time lost to spend a few days in providing step- 

 ladders, folding-ladders, and canvas sheets with rings at the corners, by which they could 

 be extended under the trees if necessary, in order to gather the fruit difficult of access. 

 When collected in our basket, we would not pour them heavily upon the floor of our fruit- 

 room or into the barrel ; neither would we convey them homeward or to market in a spring- 

 less conveyance. When about to place them in winter quarters, we should reject every un- 

 sound or bruised one, remembering that the old proverb holds true in this as in every case 

 "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" which, paraphrased, would read, "Every 

 unsound or decaying specimen of fruit will invariably depreciate the value of the rest, and 

 dispose them to rot." 



In regard to the winter-keeping of fruit, the Hon. M. P. Wilder, of Boston, in the " Horti- 

 culturist," states that his experiment of keeping fruits was suggested by the difficulty of 

 avoiding the bad effects of moisture and warmth in his old fruit-cellars under his dwelling- 

 house ; and the same difficulty exists on the ground-floor of buildings. "I therefore re- 

 sorted," he says, "to the other extreme a cool and dry chamber on the north end of my 

 barn, the location of which being over the carriage-room. I am now quite satisfied that we 

 have at last attained the proper location for a fruit-room namely, a cool upper apartment 

 with lined non-conducting walls." 



But we apprehend the great difficulty to be found in the want of care and attention to these 

 points is this Will it pay ? To such we do not know that we can give a better reply than by 

 giving the experience of a noted fruit-grower, who is satisfied that it does pay. Mr. Pell, of 

 Pelham, New York, in some remarks before the American Institute, thus explains his 

 process : 



* * * To do this reasonably, they should be picked from the tree by hand with 

 great care, so as not to break the skin or bruise the fruit in the slightest degree, as the 

 parts injured immediately decay, and ruin all the fruit coming in contact. Apples shaken 

 from the tree become more or less injured, and totally unfit to be kept through the winter, 

 or even shipped to the nearest ports. My pippin fruit is all picked by hand, by men from 

 ladders, into half-bushel baskets, from them into bushel-and-a-half baskets, in which they are 

 carried in spring wagons, twelve, at a time, to storerooms covered with straw, where they 

 are carefully piled, three feet thick, to sweat and discharge by fermentation some 30 per 

 cent, of water, when they are ready for barrelling for shipment to Europe or elsewhere. If 

 they reach their port of destination before the second process of sweating comes on, they 

 will keep perfectly four months. I have kept them sound two years, and exhibited them at 

 the end of that time at the Institute Fair, Castle Garden. They have been sent to Europe 

 and China from my farm, packed in various ways namely, in wheat chaff, buckwheat chaff, 

 oats, rye, mahogany sawdust, corkdust, wrapped separately in paper, and in ice. By the 

 mode I now adopt, I can warrant them to bear shipment superior to any other, except ice."- 

 Genesee Farmer. 



On the Ripening of Fruit. 



WE make the following extract, on the ripening of fruit, from the address of Hon. Marshall 

 P. Wilder, before the U. S. Pomological Society : 



Much progress has been made in this art within a few years, and important results have 



