BOOK XV. XVIII. 60-63 



even larger size than they could possibly attain on the 

 tree. He says that all other fruit of the apple kind 

 should also be wrapped up separately in fig-leaves 

 (but not leaves that have fallen off) and stored in 

 wicker baskets or else smeared over with potters' 

 earth. He says that pears should be stored in earthen- 

 ware jars which should be covered with pitch and 

 placed bottom upwards in a hole in the ground with 

 earth heaped over them. He recommends gathering 

 the Taranto pear very late ; and keeping the Anician 

 and also sorb-apples in raisin wine, and putting them 

 in holes dug in the ground in a sunny place, with the 

 Hd of the jar plastered up and two feet of earth heaped 

 on top of it, the vessels being placed bottom upward ; 

 and he also recommends hanging them together with 

 their branches, like grapes, in large jars. 



Some of the most recent writers examine deeper PicHngfor 

 into the matter, and recommend that fruit and grapes JJ^SStSf 

 should be picked early for the purpose of storage, /'^*««2^''^- 

 when the moon is waning, after nine o'clock in the 

 morning, in fine weather or with a dry wind blowing. 

 Likewise they say that the fruit ought to be chosen 

 from dry places and also before it is completely ripe, 

 with the further condition that the moon must be 

 below the horizon ; and that the grapes with their 

 hard hammer-shoot of stalk, after the rather rotten 

 berries have been removed with a pair of scissors, 

 should be hung up inside a fresh-tarred cask, with all 

 air shut out by the Hd and by plaster. They recom- 

 mend the same method for storing sorb-apples and 

 pears, the stalks of all having been smeared with 

 pitch. They say that the casks must not be kept 

 anywhere near water. Some people store them in 

 this way together with the branch itself, with each of 



33^ 



