RIPENING AND PRESERVING FRUITS. 281 



this, some of the former are changed to flower-buds. 

 We may learn to judge of the condition of ripeness of 

 our larg.er succulent fruits, such as apples and pears, "by a 

 little experience. When ready to be picked, they will 

 have attained their maximum size, their color will have 

 changed somewhat from its greenness, and they will as- 

 sume a sort of translucency that indicates the approach 

 of maturity ; but the best practical test for the fruit-gath- 

 erer, is the ready separation of the stem from its attach- 

 ment. In those fruits, which are suspended by a stem of 

 considerable length, and in which this organ belongs to the 

 fruit itself, and is intimately connected with its tissues, 

 we shall find that it will part easily from the branch at 

 that period of ripeness when it is best to separate it. 

 Such fruits are often much improved by a continuation of 

 the process of ripening after they are gathered, but this 

 more properly belongs to another division of the subject. 

 There is another class of fruits which are found to attain 

 their greatest excellence and most perfect ripening upon 

 the tree itself, and these can never be enjoyed elsewhere 

 in so great perfection as in close proximity to the place of 

 their production ; because, so soon as they are separated 

 from their connection with the plant, a process of decom- 

 position commences, they begin to decay, and many of 

 them soon become really unwholesome. Most of those 

 that are called stone-fruits are of this character, such as 

 peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries all of 

 which have a very transitory period of excellence. The 

 same is still more remarkably the case with most of the 

 berries, hence all of these classes of fruits are better 

 adapted to a near than to a distant market. 



