112 PROFITABLE FRUIT-GROWING. 



that number, and the same with Plums, the fruit at- 

 tains a much larger size, the crops are more valuable, 

 and the trees are not unduly weakened. Occasion- 

 ally complaints are rife about " gluts of fruit", and 

 the " crops not worth gathering", but high-class 

 samples have always met with a ready sale during 

 periods of the greatest abundance, and these are 

 always to be had by thinning crowded crops on 

 healthy trees hence the work ought not to be 

 neglected. 



Gathering Fruit. It is only necessary to say 

 in respect to small fruit left to ripen, that it should 

 not be over-ripe when gathered for travelling, or it 

 may reach the market in a jam-like mass, and not 

 realise half the price it would if gathered a day or 

 two sooner ; still, the other extreme of sending it 

 obviously unripe must be avoided. Apples and 

 Pears are ready for gathering when the fruit, if 

 lifted up by the hand, separates easily at the con- 

 traction between the stalk and the spur. If the 

 stalk has to be broken by twisting, the fruit is not 

 ready, and if torn from the trees in that way, it 

 soon shrivels. The pips or kernels are sometimes 

 brown before the fruit is quite ready for gathering. 

 Late varieties have often to remain on the trees 

 till late in the autumn. Easy separation at the 

 natural junction, which no one can fail to observe, 



