284 SKETCHES OP RURAL AFFAIRS. 



frolics, yet five or six hours of diligent apple-paring 

 restores lost appetites ; so that about midnight tea and 

 coffee, with their manifold accompaniments of Johnny 

 cakes, buckwheat cakes, dough nuts, Yankee biscuit, 

 pumpkin pie, apple-sauce, &c., are spread out in their 

 usual profusion for the use and benefit of the whole 

 party. After the parers have been replenished with 

 this second supper, many of the younger people brandish 

 their knives anew ; while the more sedate portion of 

 the performers betake themselves to their respective 

 homes. Notwithstanding there is commonly a great 

 deal of fun and frolicking during the process of apple- 

 paring, yet in a single night a large quantity of apples 

 is prepared for the drying process ; that being left, as 

 a matter of course, to the management of the owners. 

 Thus it is that in this communionship of labour a 

 great deal is performed that would otherwise be irksome 

 to those engaged in it, or else altogether neglected. 

 On the first or second night succeeding one of those 

 meetings, the same party will be found similarly en- 

 gaged at the house of some other neighbour ; and in 

 this way the business proceeds, until all those who feel 

 disposed to patronise apple-parings have each of them 

 had a benefit at his own residence." 



The storing of apples in their natural state which 

 the climate of America renders so difficult, is successfully 

 performed in our country with many well-known sorts 

 famous for their " long-keeping " qualities. Where the 

 storing of apples is done on an extensive scale, in con- 

 nexion with large gardens and orchards, there is fre- 

 quently a large and well-ventilated room, called the 

 fruit-room, fitted up expressly for the purpose, with fire- 

 places or stoves, to prevent the attacks of frost, and with 

 an abundance of convenient shelves for laying out the 

 fruit. A northern aspect is considered most suitable, 

 and it is also advantageous to have a dry cool cellar 

 under the fruit-room, for the purpose of keeping bauk 

 the ripening of some of the less durable varieties. 



