28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



as soon as warm weather really sets in, but this does not 

 amount to much, for a small stock answers all demauds at that 

 season, as we do not need many apples after strawberries come. 

 Apples should remain in the cellar till the day they are to 

 be eaten. Then the glow of an open fire, — warming best 

 brings out the peculiar aroma or flavor of each, and fills their 

 plump skins with generous juice. Placed upon the well- 

 swept hearth, they absorb the life-giving heat, bursting to 

 reveal their treasured riches. It is here we find the poetry, in 

 the juice of this homely, that is, homelike, fruit. The credit 

 is due to our youthful friend of ennobling in poetry so humble 

 a subject. 



" Poetry, poetry everywhere ! 

 Yon breathe it in the summer air; 

 You see it in the green wild woods ; 

 It nestles in the first spring buds ; 

 You find it in the primrose rare ; 

 'Tis in the apple-blossom fair ; 

 It smiles in maidens and in youths ; 

 You taste it in the apple-juice." 



Pears should be kept cool — not freezing cold — till the 

 season of their maturity arrives ; then placed in the dark, in 

 a warm room, for a few days, to ripen (they will rot without 

 ripening in the cold), — best wrapped in a flannel blanket. 

 A winter pear, brought into a warm room with a Duchess, in 

 October, will mellow up ; but there will linger about it a 

 certain smack of greenness which will disappear if kept there 

 till December. 



Many of our farmers and their families have yet to learn 

 the luxury of a dish of well-ripened Winter Nelis or Lawrence 

 pears in December. Winter loses half its terrors when we 

 can secure luxuries like these, that equal any of the melting 

 fruits of autumn, the hearty relish and the leisure to enjoy 

 being added. 



The farmer who neglects to provide for himself and his 

 family a succession of choice fruits for the year, each crowd- 

 ing upon the others, with no gaping intervals of dearth, 

 neglects the privileges of his birthright, and no wonder that 

 his children desert the old farm with no feeling of regret, for 

 it is to them a scene of privations rather than of enjoyments, 

 for they share the hard work and have none of the rewards 

 skilful industry should bestow. 



