110 



Gathering and Packing Fruit. — Agricultural Fairs. Vol. XI» 



Gathering and Packing Fruit. 



About the autumn of the year 1836 or 

 '37, I had some thirty or forty barrels of 

 apples to pick. 



In the orchard with some other fruit trees 

 were some Newtown pippin trees, and all 

 in a shocking state of neglect. As it had 

 been let run wild, I set about to clear it up, 

 and make it productive. In March I had 

 the trees scraped with a dull hoe, to which 

 I had put a short handle, to make it the 

 more handy to scrape off the outside dead 

 bark; after this, having trimmed the boughs 

 and branches, I sent to town for a barrel of 

 soft soap, with which I intended to smear 

 the stems and branches of the trees, but 

 when it came, judge of my surprise to find 

 that the soft soap of New York is made of 

 a little of the commonest grease, very little 

 alkali, some salt, and a vast amount of wa- 

 ter, making a quivering jelly; — such is the 

 villainous compound called soft soap in New 

 York; — as this was unfit for my purpose, I 

 had to make some myself With this in a 

 bucket and an old whitewash brush, I sent 

 a man into the orchard to smear all the 

 stems of the fruit trees, and all the other 

 trees which stood near by, knowing or think 

 ing the little depredators I wished to be rid 

 0^, might lurk under the bark of any tree 

 that stood in the orchard, or near it, as well 

 as in the fruit trees. It was a " bearing 

 year," as farmers call it, and there was a 

 great crop of apples; and I had very few 

 wormy ones. We picked the apples by 

 hand, and did not pour them from one bas- 

 ket to another without putting soft hay or 

 oat straw between them. While pouring 

 them we put straw on the floor of the room 

 in which they were stored ; there was also 

 straw put on the bottom of each basket, and 

 on the bottom of the cart we carried them 

 in ; all this was done to keep them from 

 bruising. After they were all housed, we 

 set to work to sort them, rejecting all which 

 had any defects, and if damp, wiping off the 

 moisture. We next took each apple and 

 rolled it in coarse clean paper, any soft paper 

 will do — the paper I bought was common 

 wrapping paper, straw paper will answer. 

 The paper had this effect — it keeps the ap- 

 ples from rubbing each other, and keeps 

 them at a certain degree of moisture, not 

 allowing them to evaporate or receive damp. 

 In the bottom, and around the sides of the 

 barrels, a small quantity of straw was placed, 

 and the apples laid in, one at a time, and as 

 close to each other as they possibly could be, 

 without jamming them. When the barrel 

 was filled, a little more straw was put on 

 the top, and the head of ^the barrel put in, 



with an inside lining hoop, to keep the head 

 from being knocked in, by accident; there 

 was besides a lining hoop put in the bottom 

 head of the barrel, before I commenced 

 packing. These apples were put up to or- 

 der, and were to go to Sheffield, in England. 

 After taking all these precautions, I wrote 

 a direction to this effect: 



" These barrels of apples are not to be 

 rolled or tumbled about ; if carted, or sent 

 any way by land, something is to be put on 

 the floor of the cart or wagon, so as to keep 

 them from being bruised, rattled, or jolted." 



The apples when packed in this way, 

 were tight in the barrels, and could not be 

 made to rattle with common usage. M. C. 

 W., who ordered them, informed me that 

 they arrived at the destined place, and were 

 all sound to an apple, and much admired by 

 the consignee for their preservation and 

 manner of putting up. I took the lesson 

 from seeing the oranges and lemons which 

 arrive here from Spain and Portugal, packed 

 in the same manner. 



Those apples which have a close tight 

 skin, will keep the best for the greatest 

 length of time. Of this kind are the New- 

 town pippin, the Lady apple, the Russet: 

 besides, there is the real Rhode Island 

 Greening, which may be kept until the 

 May of the next year. 



If the precautions which I have laid down 

 are strictly attended to, any of these may be 

 sent to England as well as the pippin ; but 

 the greening is not so good an apple to keep. 

 People may talk as much as they have a 

 mind to about the heat and damp of ships, 

 and so on, being the cause of the apples rot- 

 ting; but who could expect that an apple, 

 or any other fruit or vegetable could be kept 

 from it, if jammed or bruised constantly. — 

 Farmer cjp Mechanic. 



Agricultural Fairs. 



We would invite the attention of some of our farm- 

 ers to the follow ing remarks of the Tribune. Stran- 

 gers sometimes perceive our errors more quickly than 

 we ourselves do, and their hints are worthy of all re- 

 spect. — Ed. 



Auburn, Wednesday, Sept. ICtb, 1846. 

 This is the great day of the Fair, and a 

 brighter, pleasanter, was never enjoyed by 

 mortals. The cloudless sky and the fresh 

 green earth harmonize in producing rare 

 external beauty and cheerfulness; the show- 

 ers of night before last, have cooled the at- 

 mosphere just sufficiently; the people of 

 central and western New York have assem- 

 bled by tens of thousands, and still every 

 train, every thoroughfare teems with hun- 

 dreds more pouring in. Never did nature 



