The Canadian Horticulturist. 383 



Barrels, while suitable to keep such kinds as the Baldwin, are not the best 

 packages to hold the majority of kinds. I use crates made on purpose. These 

 are three feet long by 14 inches deep and wide, and hold 2^ bushels each. I 

 put my apples in them when taken from the trees, drawing them near the cellar 

 and packing them three to five high, covering securely from the storms. Here 

 they go through the sweating process. Being in the crates, the vapor generated 

 passes off and does the fruit no harm, as often happens when in barrels. I hold 

 the fruit out doors as long as is safe ; then assort with care, and run them into 

 my cellar. To facilitate this work, I have a small tram which I put on a light 

 movable track, that extends into the cellar and out to the pile of crates. I 

 attach a small rope to the tram, and run it through a one-wheel tackle-block, 

 and fasten the tackle-block to end of track. On this tram I place two crates of 

 apples and by giving the tram a push it runs into the cellar. There I have two 

 men to unload and put up the fruit. In this way I can fill my cellar full in less 

 than ten hours. And I have often taken out of this cellar in spring five hundred 

 barrels of sound apples. After the cellar is full, it is shut up until the condition 

 of the atmosphere is favorable, — dry and cold. Then it is opened up, and the 

 cold air let in. It is no unusual thing to leave the windows or some of them, 

 open for a week, when the thermometer is down to zero or below. It is quite 

 remarkable how much cold a cellar full of apples requires to keep the fruit 

 down to the degree most suitable for their keeping. When this point is reached 

 I shut the cellar again, and hold it until the thermometer indicates that more 

 cold is needed, when it is opened again. In this way I have been very success- 

 ful in keeping my apples for a spring market, especially such kinds as the 

 Northern Spy, which has been my only profitable apple for the last fifteen years. 

 It is a good keeper, when well grown, in this manner, but not a good keeper in 

 barrels, as usually kept. In closing I will say : A cellar to keep fruit well, 

 should be devoted to fruit alone. There should be another cellar for kitchen 

 purposes. — Orange Judd Farmer. 



Cultivate the Orchard. — Plow the orchard, but be careful of the trees. 

 Plows and whiffletrees cause more damage to the trunks of young fruit trees in 

 one cultivation than months of care and growth can cure. A device in success- 

 ful use at Rochester, N. Y., is made as follows : Take the plow where it is 

 wanted with least danger from the teams. To the front of a bob-sled is lashed 

 an arm which projects a foot and a-half on either side, and is heavily wrapped 

 with an old blanket. To one end of this arm the plow is attached by a clevis, 

 and before the main plowing of the orchard is attempted, two bouts are made 

 for each row of trees. When back furrowing from the trees, two furrows are 

 left and finished with the plow attached as before to the bob. This permits 

 thorough plowing and close and safe cultivation, which does not leave over one 

 square foot of unplowed earth about each trunk. This saves a great deal of 

 hand labor, as well as broken bark and limbs, while the equipment can be 

 arranged in ten minutes from materials always at hand. — Farm and Home. 



