NO. S. 



THE FARMERS CABINET. 



123 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



Preserving Apples. 



Mr. Editor — I herewith send thee my 

 plan of keepintr apples through the winter. 

 Pick them oil" eareiully, and lay them on a 

 clean sward about two tier thick — as 1 had but 

 few last season, I put them down in single 

 file, covering them up with rag weed mowed 

 with stubble, about the depth of six inches, 

 and so continued on until they were covered 

 about eighteen inches; then lay down some 

 rails so as to prevent the litter from blowing 

 away. Old hay or buckwheat straw will 

 answer the same purpose. I have pursued 

 this plan for four years past, and am confident 

 that the Webster's can't " go ahead" of it. 



H. Stokes. 

 BurUngio7i county, N.J. 10th m'th, 1836. 



[Apples may be preserved in various ways. 

 It seems not to be generally known, however, 

 that they may be kept the whole year round 

 by being immersed in corn, which receives 

 no injury from their contact. In Portugal it 

 is customary to have a small ledge in almost 

 every apartment, immediately under the cor- 

 nice, barely wide enough to hold an apple, 

 with the interstices filled up with grain — in 

 this way the ceilings are fringed with fruit. 

 An excellent method is pursued in some 

 of the river counties of New-York. A cor- 

 respondent of the New-York Farmer says 

 there is no difficulty in preserving winter 

 apples through the summer by my method, 

 which is to take a flour barrel, cover the 

 bottom with ground plaster or gypsum, select 

 the best and fairest fruit and place them in 

 the bottom of the barrel, so as not to touch 

 each other, and cover them with plaster, and 

 so proceed until the barrel is filled, then head 

 it up and place it in a dry and proper situa- 

 tion. The barrels and plaster should be ta- 

 ken to the orchard, and the apples laid down 

 as taken from the tree. The apple is not 

 only preserved in a perfect state, but the 

 flavor remains uninjured ; the plaster absorb- 

 ing the moisture from the apples and ex- 

 cluding the atmosphere. By the farmer no 

 risk is run, as the plaster can be used upon 

 his land. The method adopted by Mr. Na- 

 than WaRxNer, of New-Hampshire, is very 

 simple, and one that may be easily practised. 

 The apples are to be laid down in dry llax 

 seed chaff, where they remain until the month 

 of June following, when they are to be over- 

 hauled, those that are unsound thrown aside, 

 the chaff spread out and dried, and the sound 

 apples packed down again along with the 

 chaff as at first. Managed in this way, Mr. 

 Warner has had plenty of fresh apples 

 through the whole of the past season, and 

 until the ripening of the same fruit this au- 

 tumn. Noah Webster, Esq. maintainsthat 

 the usual practice of many persons of picking 



apples in October and spreading them on the 

 floor of an upper room for the purpose of ren- 

 dering them more durable by drying, is a 

 grand mistake. He says aj)ples, after 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 possible. If suffered to lie on a 

 floor for weeks, they wither and lose their 

 flavor, without acquiring any additional du- 

 rability. The best mode of preserving apples 

 for spring use, I have found to be, the putting- 

 them in dry sand as soon as picked. Fot 

 this purpose, I dry sand in the heat of sum- 

 mer, and late in October put down the apples 

 in layers, with a covering of sand upon 

 each layer. The singular advantage of 

 this mode of treatment are these: — 1st. 

 The sand keeps the apples from the air, 

 which is essential to their preservation. 2d. 

 The sand checks the evaporation or perspira- 

 tion of the apples, thus preserving in them 

 their full flavor — at the same time, any mois- 

 ture yielded by the apples, (and some there 

 will be,) is absorbed by the sand; so that 

 the apples are kept dry, and all mustiness is 

 prevented. My pippins in May and June, 

 are as fresh as when first picked ; even the 

 ends of the stem look as if just separated 

 from the twig.] 



Apples for Stock. 



We have from time to time published 

 accounts of experiments in fattening pork 

 with apples, which has been done with suc- 

 cess and profit. The use of apples as food 

 during winter for stock, has been abundantly 

 successful during the past winter. 



Several of our acquaintance have used 

 them for this purpose, and consider them a 

 valuable acquisition to their stores of fodder. 

 Mr. J. Bacon, of this town, informs us that 

 he has fed them out daily to his sheep, and 

 has seldom had a flock of sheep do better 

 during a winter. Several other farmers, who 

 have had two or three hundred bushels, have 

 used them with their hay with good effect. 

 Here then is another reason why farmers 

 should not only preserve their orchards, 

 which they now have, with care, but also set 

 out more, and such kinds as will keep well 

 during the winter. An orchard may be con- 

 sidered as a fixture. When the trees once 

 arrive to the bearing age, they require but 

 very little care to keep them in a thrify con- 

 dition. They may be considered as a per- 

 manent crop, always planted out, and always 

 ready for the summer. — Maine Fanner. 



It would be as unjust and inhuman to hat© 

 a man for honest errors of opinion in religion, 

 politics. &c. as it would be to hate another 

 because he is infected with some constitum 

 tional disease, 



