THE RIPENING AND PRESERVATION OF FRUITS. 221 



It is not desirable to preserve fruits at the expense of losing their 

 flavor. Housekeepers take fruits when in their best condition, 

 and put them up in glass jars, and the flavor is preserved ; it is 

 easily done, and they are always readj- for nse. The Gravenstein 

 and Palmer apples are unrivalled in quality and can be kept in 

 perfection ; pears also may be kept perfectly. He thought, as a 

 rule, if we extend the keeping of fruits, we extend the price. 



Eobert Manning thought that the most critical time in regard to 

 keeping fruit is the warm days in autumn — the lovel}' Indian 

 Summer days of October. Especial care is then needed to carry 

 them past this time. They should be piled up on the north side 

 of a building, or if kept inside the doors should be open during 

 the night and closed by day. Last October was uncommonly 

 warm, and therefore unusually difficult to keep fruit through. 



Mr. Wilder said, in answer to an inquir3^ that everything de- 

 pends on the condition of fruit when it is placed in the storehouse. 

 His superintendent watches the picking of his fruit with the 

 greatest care ; every fruit is handled as carefully as an egg. The 

 dealers in Boston who buy pears in the market to keep in the cool 

 houses often suffer loss from the careless way in which the fruit 

 has been handled. Fruit placed in the storehouse bruised and in 

 uneven condition as to ripeness wnll never keep. 



Mr. Hadwen said that fruit designed to be kept should be picked 

 before it is too ripe. He had kept green Boussock pears for four 

 weeks. It is especially desirable in gathering winter apples, such 

 as Baldwins or Greenings, which ara wanted to keep late, that 

 they should not be too ripe. 



The Chairman, Benjamin G. Smith, said that shippers liegin 

 gathering apples two or three weeks before it is generally done. 



E. W. Wood agreed with Mr. Manning that the time of warm 

 autumn weather is a critical one in the keeping of fruit. He gen- 

 erally picks his Anjou pears about the tenth of October, and last 

 year the}' ripened about the end of that month and he had to send 

 them to market. Every year apples are found under leaves, per- 

 fectly sound, in the spring. He thought those who store apples like 

 to have the temperature as low as 30° and from that to 28°. Every 

 year they get caught and frozen, but this is not considered an 

 injury if the fruit is not wanted for immediate use. His father 

 had stored apples in tlie cellar and found them frozen, but he 

 allowed them to thaw without moving and they came out in per- 



