FRUIT CULTURE FOR PROFIT. 425 



is well to try them on a small scale until such time as 

 their nature and qualities are fairly proved. 



5. Gathering^ Storing, and Marketing. The gathering 

 of fruit is a point of great importance, and requires a 

 nice discriminative judgment on the part of the most 

 experienced cultivator. To make the best of it, it must be 

 ripe enough, but not too ripe. The colour of the skin is a 

 good guide to those who know, though of little use to 

 those who do not know. Then a second test is the readi- 

 ness with which the fruit yields when gathered, but this 

 again is a matter which requires experience and judgment. 

 Some fruits are gathered and sent to market direct from 

 the tree, others require storing for maturation. For the 

 latter, a fruit room is necessary. A fruit room should be 

 dry and cool. If built with hollow walls and a double 

 roof, one of straw and one of tiles, heating may be dis- 

 pensed with. No windows are necessary ; fruit keeps best 

 in the dark ; but there should be shutters for giving air to 

 dry the moisture which exudes through the skin of apples 

 and pears for the first six weeks after they are stored. 

 Fruit can hardly be kept too cool, provided it is not ex- 

 posed to frost ; a temperature of 40 is about the right 

 thing. Stored fruit should be laid in thin layers single 

 layers if possible on shelves ; if laid in heaps it is subject 

 to what gardeners call " sweating," and the quality becomes 

 deteriorated. 



It must not be overlooked that some fruit pears 

 especially require a higher temperature than that men- 

 tioned above to mature and acquire a full flavour. But 

 this special management is perhaps more the business of 

 the fruiterer than the cultivator. 



The fact should be kept in view that the grower's work 

 is only partly done when he gathers and stores his crops. 

 He has to sell them. To this end he may have to sort 

 them, and pack them so that they may sustain no injury in 

 travelling ; he must also market them at the right time. 

 All this requires judgment and experience. A crop may 



