GATHERING AND MANAGEMENT OF APPLES. 291 



In a dry and well-ventilated cellar the air is constantly re- 

 newed and kept dry, thus carrying the damp vapor from the 

 fruit as regularly as it escapes, by sweating or otherwise. 



Storing Winter Apples in Barrels. When apples are to 

 be kept during the winter in barrels, after having been 

 carefully hand-picked in baskets, the fruit should be laid 

 on a floor, by hand, without pouring from the baskets, until 

 they are twelve or eighteen inches deep, where the fruit 

 should be left to dry and season three weeks, after which 

 the apples should be carefully packed in clean dry barrels. 

 The plan of drying and seasoning in the air before barrel- 

 ling, prevailed generally some years ago, although nowa- 

 days it is mostly discontinued, and thought useless, as the 

 process requires the exercise of too much care to comport 

 with the fast notions of V Young America." 



The following is a practice a pomologist recommends: 

 Having picked your apples nicely, put them in the barrels 

 without a leaf or straw or a spire of grass head them up, 

 and set them in a clean out-building where there is no of- 

 fensive odor, and let them stand till the ground begins to 

 freeze a little ; then, in a clean grassy place, dig a ditch, 

 square and straight, eighteen inches deep, and just wide 

 enough to receive the barrels. In the bottom lay two 

 fence rails close in the corners pieces of rails will do. 

 Now roll your barrels in, and they will be about six to 

 eight inches above the surface lying end to end. Cover 

 them with the dirt ; but do not lay the sods on the barrels 

 with the grass next to them. The covering may be ten 

 inches thick or more; but you need not fear freezing, it 

 won't hurt the apples. If it is a clay soil, you had better 

 make your ditch on a slope, so that the water will run out 

 at the lower end. When you want apples, dig out a barrel 

 and put it in the cellar ; and I warrant you will say the first 

 you eat is best, for in ten days' time the exquisite aroma 



