OF FRUIT TREES. 115 



limbs, without injuring the bark. When perfectly 

 ripe, apples for cider may be shaken off without 

 injury to the buds, but still they will be bruised, 

 unless the ground be covered with blankets or 

 straw. Particular care is requisite in gathering 

 winter fruit for keeping: they should be gathered 

 by the hand, and without injury, removing them 

 from the gathering basket to the casks prepared 

 for them, with great care : if bruised, they soon 

 decay; and the less those that are sound are mov- 

 ed, the better. When in barrels, they should be 

 placed in a dry, cool, shaded situation, above 

 ground, and remain until danger by frost, and then 

 put into the cellar. 



The following valuable observations, contained 

 in a letter from N. Webster, esquire, have been 

 published in the Massachusetts Agricultural Reposi- 

 tory, from the Connecticut Courant. 



PRESERVATION OF APPLES. 



" It is the practice with some persons, to pick 

 them in October, and first spread them on the 

 floor of an upper room. This practice is said to 

 render apples more durable, by drying them. But 

 I can affirm this to be a mistake. Apples, if re- 

 maining on the trees as long as safety from the 

 frost will admit, should be taken directly from the 

 trees to close casks, and kept dry and cool as pos- 

 sible. If suffered to lie on a floor for weeks, they 

 wither and lose their flavour, without acquiring any 

 additional durability. The best mode of preserving 

 apples for spring use, I have found to be, the put- 

 ting them in dry sand as soon as picked. For this 

 purpose, I dry sand in the heat of summer, and 

 late in October put down the apples in layers, with 

 a covering of sand upon each layer. The singular- 

 advantages of this mode of treatment are these": 

 1st. The sand keeps the apple/ from the air, which 



