286 AMERICAN POMOLOGY. 



they are placed for preservation, or transportation to mar- 

 ket. In packing, it is best to use no material but the fruit 

 itself, which should be so closely placed that they shall 

 not jostle and bruise one another when moved. Some 

 persons use a bag, slung around the neck, when gathering 

 the fruits from the tree ; into this they are placed as fast 

 as they are plucked, and successively transferred to the 

 barrels, or poured in piles upon the ground. With very 

 firm varieties, this may be done without serious damage, 

 but the bruising that necessarily ensues will be very pre- 

 judicial to all the more delicate fruits, and will materially 

 depreciate the value of such as are also of a pale color. A 

 want of care in this matter of handling fruit is, no doubt, 

 the chief reason for the popular preference of red apples 

 in our markets, since those, that are well covered with a 

 deep color, do not show the bruises that are so unseemly 

 upon the fair cheek of the lighter colored varieties. 



The modes of keeping winter fruits are exceedingly va- 

 rious, and some of them are quite primitive. The desid- 

 erata are coolness and dryness, which should not be car- 

 ried to the extent of freezing, nor of desiccation. The 

 simplest method is to place the fruit in a pile upon a dry 

 piece of ground, to cover it thickly with clean dry straw, 

 and, as the winter approaches, to apply a heavy layer of 

 earth, sufficient to keep out the frost. Sometimes this is 

 kept from the stiaw by a simple roof of boards, which 

 support the earth from pressing upon the fruit, and leave 

 it in a sort of cave, which can be entered occasionally dur- 

 ing the winter. This plan is only recommended for those 

 who have no cellars or other suitable apartments, for 

 many fruits acquire an earthy flavor from this near con 



