APPLES. 139 



f 



A northern aspect is the most suitable; and it is also 

 desirable that there should be a dry, cool cellar under it, 

 to be employed in retarding the maturation and decay of 

 some of the more fugitive varieties. All the fruit intended 

 for keeping should be plucked with the hand, or with such 

 an implement as the fruit-gatherer invented by Mr. Saul, 

 of Lancaster. For the finer dessert fruits the shelves 

 should be made of hard wood, not of fir, and the fruit 

 should be laid upon cartridge or writing paper, to prevent 

 its imbibing any taint from the wood. The kitchen fruit 

 may be kept in layers two or three deep, but not in heaps, 

 and should be occasionally examined, when decaying fruit 

 is to be removed. The sweating of apples and pears, for- 

 merly much practiced, is now abandoned, as being attended 

 with no useful effects. * 



In the United States, this most valuable of all fruits is 

 of universal culture, although it attains to highest perfec- 

 tion in the Middle and some of the Northern States. The 

 catalogue of the apple of the London Horticultural Soci- 

 ety, including no less than 1,400 varieties, shows an im- 

 mense increase since the days of Pliny, when only twenty- 

 two were named. Of the kinds which have been intro- 

 duced into the United States from abroad, many of great 

 value are found in various parts of the country : the fol- 

 lowing have been pronounced of the highest merit by the 

 National Congress of Fruit-growers held up to 1854 : 



Early Harvest, Vandervere, 



Large Yellow Bough, White Seek-no-further, 



American Summer Pearmain, William's Favorite (except for 



Summer Rose, light soils), 



Early Strawberry, Wine Apples or Hays, 



Gravenstein, Ladies' Sweet, 



Fall Pippin, Lady Apple, 



Rhode Island Greening, Fameuse Danvers Winter Sweet, 



