RIPENING AJO) PRESERVING FRUITS. 285 



fruit-stem, which should always be preserved, and from 

 the apple especially, it should never be pulled out, as is 

 apt to happen in certain varieties, when proper care is not 

 exercised in picking them. Some of the apples that re- 

 quire to be gathered early, are, the Rambo, Pryor's Red, 

 Hubbardston, Westfield, Rhode Island Greening, several 

 Russets, and all those which evince a tendency to fall pre- 

 maturely. There are others which may be left to a later 

 period with impunity, some of these will even bear a lit- 

 tle freezing without serious damage, but we should always 

 endeavor to anticipate the exposure of our fruits to any 

 great depression of temperature while they remain at- 

 tached to the trees. An early and severe frost has often 

 proved disastrous to a fine crop of apples, thus left too 

 long upon the trees. 



For all fruits it is essential that the weather should be 

 fine at the time they are gathered. They should be per- 

 fectly dry when plucked, and they must be handled with 

 the greatest care to avoid bruising in the slightest degree. 

 Each specimen must be taken separately in the hand and 

 turned to one side, when, if it do not part readily from 

 the twig, the thumb and finger must be applied to the 

 stem, to aid the separation at the proper point ; each is 

 then to be placed in a gathering basket, which should be 

 shallow, and for delicate sorts should be lined loosely with 

 fresh leaves or with soft moss, or a little wilted grass. 

 From the baskets, the fruit should be transferred to its 

 permanent winter quarters, by a careful and judiciors 

 hand, who should select them and reject all that are bruis- 

 ed, specked, or otherwise defective, and place them on the 

 shelves, or pack them in the boxes or barrels into which 



