FRUIT ROOM FOR KEEPING. 39 



the same character and quality when grown in one utterly devoid 

 of that material. Analysis has shown us somewhat of this, while 

 practical experience is teaching it yearly, in the evidence of rot, &c., 

 exhibited in varieties grown on trees long unsupplied with aught 

 but the natural ingredients of the soil. As under the head of each 

 variety of fruit we give the analysis belonging thereto, we shall not 

 extend remarks here on a subject too well understood and accepted 

 to require argument in its support. The influence of climate on 

 varieties has, we think, only this effect, viz. : to create more or less 

 rapid growth of both tree and fruit as we go north or south, causing 

 in the tree a coarser, more spongy, soft wood, and more subject to 

 injury from sudden changes of atmosphere, when grown south; and 

 in the fruit, greater size, more open and coarser texture of flesh, and 

 corresponding depreciation in flavor, with earlier maturity in apple 

 and pear ; but in the peach, apricot, and nectarine, additional charac 

 ter and sweetness, as the juices are more elaborated. 



The influence of Stocks on varieties seems one not easily ex 

 plained; for while all know that to propagate a strong growing 

 variety upon a slow growing stock has a tendency at once to 

 reduce its growth of wood and create a producing habit ; and vice 

 versa, when a slow grower is placed on one of vigorous habit. Yet 

 the reason why a fruit is better or worse in quality when grown on 

 varied stocks and subject to like soil, has not been explained. Seed 

 ling stocks, as most used by nursery-men, are not all alike vigorous 

 or hardy ; hence the apparent difference in trees propagated on 

 them and removed to various locations. Under each general head 

 of varieties of fruits, we give such information as we have been ena 

 bled to gain of the adaptation of certain stocks to the variety, and 

 refer thereto for further remark. 



CHAPTER V. 



GATHERING FRUIT TIME WHEN FRUIT-ROOM FOR KEEPING AND 



RIPENING. 



THE gathering of hardy fruits, such as apples, pears, quinces, 

 grapes, etc., should be performed in the middle of a dry day, not in 

 the morning before the dew is evaporated, nor in evening when it is 

 depositing; neither should they be gathered immediately after a 



