STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. ' I53 



In regard to the time of pruning' there is a great diversity of 

 opinion even among experienced men, the time recommended 

 ranging from midwinter to midsummer, some implying that doing 

 the work well is of more importance than the time of doing. When 

 trees are pruned in winter in a northern climate, the bark will 

 sometimes crack open and make a bad wound, which will not heal 

 properly. I prefer to do such work any time from the first of 

 April to the first of June ; the sap is then flowing ; the alburnum 

 forms a callosity, and the healing process commences at once. The 

 next best time is when the autumn growth is rapid and vigorous." 



The proper time for gathering fruil. — * " It is well known by 

 observing horticulturists, that winter fruit may become over-ripe 

 while yet hanging on the tree, so that its season is advanced. 

 Such was the case during the very warm and late fall of 1870; 

 and the following winter there was a complaint all through the 

 country that fruit could not be kept. In some places it was gone 

 before New Year. There is a time in the life of fruit when its 

 growth is complete — when it will receive nothing further from the 

 tree. It is then tree-ripe. Shortly after begins after-ripening, a 

 chemical change, whereby the starch, abundant in the unripe or 

 green fruit, is transformed into sugar. At the completion of this 

 saccharine change the fruit is in the best condition for use. But 

 almost immediately putrefaction sets in, first dissipating the vola- 

 tile aroma and destroying the delicate flavor, and finally convert- 

 ing the grateful sugar into an unwholesome acid and consuming 

 the very tissues of the fruit. Though a low temperature and dry 

 atmosphere may sometimes retard this change, yet so easy and 

 rapid is its progress, that efforts to preserve the fruit after it has 

 become ripe for use, are of little avail. But the progress of the 

 first change, the after-ripening, may be so delayed as to require 

 several months for its accomplishment. It is done by taking the 

 fruit from the tree at the moment of its maturity, and keeping it 

 in a low, even temperature, in a dry, pure atmosphere, and se- 

 cluded from the light. Fruit houses are constructed, where these 

 conditions are secured almost in perfection ; where the thermome- 

 ter, for instance, does not rise above 34° for months together, and 

 fruit kept in them has barely ripened for the late spring market." 



* Department of Agriculture, Report 1873, page 471. 



