368 



OPERATIONS OF GATHERING, ETC. 



middle of April. Early resting is the best preparation for early 

 forcing, and indeed is almost essential to its success. 



Operations of Gathering, Preserving, Keeping, and Packing. 



Gathering. The productions of horticulture are in part enjoyed as 

 scenery, and in part as articles of food, and other uses of domestic 

 economy ; and the gathering of articles for the latter purposes forms a 

 part of the duty of the gardener. All crops are taken from the plant 

 when mature, as in the case of ripe fruit or roots ; or they are cut 

 from it when the plant is in a growing state, as in gathering herbs or 

 cabbages ; or the entire plant is taken up, as in the case of turnips, 

 carrots, &c. In all these cases the part of the plant to be gathered 

 should not have been moistened by rain, and the weather at the time 

 should be dry. Wherever the knife requires to be used in gathering, 

 the operation may be considered as coming under pruning, and should 

 be performed with the same care in respect to buds and wounded 

 sections. In gathering fruit, care should be taken not to rub off the 

 bloom, particularly from cucumbers, plums, and grapes. When ripe 

 seeds are gathered, the capsules or pods should be perfectly dry, and 

 they should be spread out afterwards in a shaded, airy shed or loft, or 

 on a seed-sheet in the open air, till they are ready to be rubbed out, 

 cleaned, and put up into paper bags till wanted. 



Preserving. Culinary vegetables may be preserved in a fresh state 

 by placing moveable covers, such as thatched hurdles, over them in the 



open garden, as indicated in fig. 

 330 ; or by planting them in 

 soil, in pits or frames, to be 

 covered during severe weather ; 

 or they may be planted in soil, 

 in light cellars, the windows being 

 opened in the daytime a practice 

 common in the colder countries 

 of the Continent. Aromatic herbs, 

 such as mint, thyme, &c., may 

 be preserved by first drying them 

 in the shade, and next com- 

 pressing each kind into small 

 packets, and covering these with 

 paper. Aromatic herbs, and also 

 pot-herbs, such as parsley, celery, leaves, chervil, &c., may be preserved 

 by drying in an oven, rubbing or grinding them to powder, and stowing 

 them away in wide-mouthed closely-corked bottles. The ripe fruit may 

 be preserved in dried sand, dry bran, chaff, &c., in the following manner. 

 Wrap any ripe fruit round with tissue-paper, and pack them in barrels or 

 pots with layers of such substances between them to exclude ihe air, and 

 keep the fruit from bruising each other. Roots, tubers, and bulbs are 

 preserved in soil or in sand, moderately dry, and excluded from frost ; 

 and some kinds, which have coverings which protect them from evapo- 



Fig. 330. 



Low-roof thatched hurdles for protecting 

 plants in the open garden. 



