372 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



KEEPING APPLES. 



• 



R. P. Mak8u, of B:-;in(l(m, Vt., states that he 



Lad, last July, Klmde Island Greenings, Northern 

 Spy and Spitzenberg ap|iles fresh and juicy and of 

 giX)d flavor. He says one great mistake iu regard 

 to a[)ples, (and we may add in regard to winter 

 pears also,) is in picking them before they are 

 thoroughly matured. "My experience," lie says, 

 "in keeping apples for the past thirty years is 

 eimplj' this; I have packed them in buckwheat 

 Lulls, wheat bran, dried sand and sawdust. I have 

 also kept them on shelves and in barrels with no 

 intermixture of other material. The latter I con- 

 sider the better method for two reasons: 1st, they 

 ko;it as well or better; 2d, they are fresher, more 

 juicy, and, consequently, more delicious eating. 

 In the latter part of last November, 1862, I took 

 clean, dry flour-barrels, and set them on pieces of 

 ecjintling in my coolest and darkest cellar room. 

 A part of them I filled with apples, and nothing 

 but apples. In a part of the barrels I placed very 

 dry corn-husks at the bottom and sides, and then 

 filled with apples. Another portion of the same 

 varieties of apples I .placed in single layers on 

 wooden shelves in the same room. In February 

 and March I examined the apples, and found those 

 in barrels, with husks at the bottom, had many of 

 tiieJii deciiyeil, and the rotted ones seemed to affect 

 all the rest, for tliere was a damp mold reaching 

 nearly to the top of the barrels, and many of the 

 apples covered with it. In the barrels without 

 husks there was a mere trifle of unsound fruit, 

 while it did not at all affect (as in the other bar- 

 rels) the tafite of what remained sound. On the 

 eholves about the same proportion decayed as in 

 the barrels without husks, but the apples in these 

 barrels seemed a little fresher to eat than any of 

 the others. 



"On the whole, then, I consider all the 'mys- 

 tery' about keeping apples is to have them care- 

 fully picked, without brusing, quite late in the sea- 

 son; ke[>t in a cool place, free from frost, until the 

 * sweating process' is completed; then placed in a 

 dark, cool room iu the cellar in barrels, as describ- 

 <^, open at the top, or on shelves, as preferred. If 

 tliere is any better way, I have not found it. It 

 slionld be borne in mind that if the heat from a 

 furnace, or any other artificial heat in the cellar, 

 comes in contact with the fruit, it is sure to in- 

 jure it." 



Lay Down* SnitirnnKHY ix Winter. — The best 

 way to presi'rve tender j)lant8 and shrubbery is to 

 lay them domn — tliat is, bend them down and 

 cover witli a tVw inches of earth, tl^'ade firm with 

 the back of the spade. 



THE FKUIT REGION OF MICHIGAN. 



A WRITER in tlie Chicogo Tribune has been visit- 

 ing tiie celebrated fruit region on the sh'ires of 

 Lake Michigan, and speaks of it as follows: 



Tiie ancient village of St. J().<!eph, in Berrien 

 county, Mich., has assumed new importance \jithla 

 the past few years, owing to the notoriety estab- 

 lished for the adjacent country as a fruit-growing 

 region. This village was settled by tlie French 

 long before Chicago had an exi.xtence, and about 

 the same time Detroit was settled. For many 

 years the liglit sandy soil thereabouts was consid- 

 ered worthies.'*, and remained unentered and un- 

 improved in the hands of the Government. When 

 tlie discovery w.^s made, a few years ago, that both 

 the soil and climate was peculiarly favorable to 

 the production of fruit, land near the town was 

 souglit with avidity, and now commands a 'good 

 price. Berrien county is generally heavy timbered, 

 and lary:e quantities of square-cut timber, railroad 

 ties and stave timber are being drawn from these 

 forests to the Paw-Paw river, rafted down to the 

 harbor, and thence shipped to Chicago. The upper 

 soil is comjjosed of that loose drifting sand so com- 

 mon on tiie south and east sides of the lake and 

 underlaid by a stiff blue clay at a depth varying 

 from a few inches to many feet. The land on the 

 soutli and west sides of the St. Joseph river gener- 

 ally recedes a little in elevation from the lal^e and 

 springs, in some instances rising only a few feet 

 from the lake bluff', now east to the river and 

 thence to tiie lake. The soil, as it recedes from 

 the lake and town, in many places is quite destitute 

 of sand, the clay cropping out to the surface, form- 

 ing a hard and ungeuial soil. The surface is cut up 

 considerably by deep ravines, generally running 

 from east to west and ojieiiing into tiie low land 

 marj^hes that border the two rivers, and spread out 

 in fields of thousands of acres, now covered with 

 a luxuriant growth of wild rice. The best fruit 

 orchards are within two ortliree miles of thelake, 

 and it is owing principally to the influence of moist 

 lake winds tliat heavy frosts are kept away, render- » 

 ing a total failure of the fruit crop ot rare occur- 

 rence. 



To give some idea of the extent of the fruit- 

 growing business, we will enumerate a few of the 

 orciiards visited in a day's drive : 



Dr. L. Coi.Lixs has a very neatly arranged, well 

 cultivated fruit orchard, contnining 2,600 fruit trees, 

 whicli were set out three years ago last spring, em- 

 bracing all kinds of fruit, and a seven-acre vine- 

 yard of l.sabellis and Catawbas, which will yield 

 liiin from eight to ten tuns of grapes. Three years 

 ago last December he brouglit fifty trees from Ohio 

 in a trunk, and set them out. This year he will 

 gather upwards of 100 bushels of |)eaches from 

 tlieni. lie has also some of the finest apples we 

 hav.i anywhere seen. 



Mr. Powell's trees are princi]ially Hale's Early, 

 set out two years ago last .-pring. .Some that were 

 planted only one year ago la>t spring, are now full 

 of delicious fruit! As a contra.-t, there are i)eaoh 

 trees in the iieighborliood tluit are thirty years old, 

 and have borne a crop nearly every year, which 

 this year are broken down beneath the extraordin- 

 ary yield. 



E. & H. 0. MoKTON have an orchard embracing 



