GATHERING AND MANAGEMENT OF APPLES. 297 



as ripens early in autumn, will keep much longer if plucked 

 before the specimens are dead ripe. The Sweet Bough and 

 Early Harvest apples, for example, if gathered as soon as 

 the fruit has really come to maturity, and laid carefully in a 

 cool place, will often keep a month ; whereas, if left on the 

 trees, they would become so dead ripe in a week that they 

 would be of little value. And yet apples may be gathered 

 too early. When fruit is gathered before it has come to 

 maturity, it will wilt and become insipid, like a large pro- 

 portion of the early apples that are sold in the New York 

 markets. By a little observation, it will be noticed that 

 well-matured apples, after being stored a while, look and 

 feel quite oily when handled. They should be handled with 

 considerable care after this process has taken place, so as to 

 disturb this oily coating as little as possible, for this is Na- 

 ture's covering to prevent decay ; and what better material 

 could she have supplied for such a purpose ? If apples are 

 plucked before they have ceased to grow, this oily bloom 

 will be wanting on the surface of the wilted fruit. Hence 

 beginners should study to determine the true period for 

 gathering every kind of fruit. 



Fruit-preserving Houses. In many large cities spacious 

 fruit-preserving houses have been erected for the preserva- 

 tion of crude fruit until the succeeding summer. When 

 one has but few apples, it would not pay to construct such 

 a building. A fruit-preserving house is built very much 

 like an ice-house. The side walls are made double, and the 

 space between them is filled with sawdust or dry tan-bark. 

 The doorway is double, having a door on each side of the 

 jamb casings. The floor over the fruit-room is made of 

 sheet metal, water-tight, and on it is placed ice two or 

 three feet in depth, over which a deep layer of straw is 

 spread. The ice maintains the temperature at such a uni- 

 form degree, that the more perishable sorts and varieties 



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